REF-670 · Orie, Hofman, de Koning & Foster, 2014 · International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, · Paper · PubMed
Over 38 years (10 Olympiads), successful Olympic speed skaters shifted their training toward more time in the lowest lactate zone and less in the middle and high zones
Total hours did not rise
Participants
Olympic-medal-winning trainers/coaches and speed skaters across 10 Olympiads were interviewed and their training programs analysed; the abstract does not give the number of skaters or programs.
Protocol
Design: retrospective analysis — Olympic-medal-winning trainers/coaches and speed skaters were interviewed and their training programs analysed across 10 Olympiads (from the abstract)
Each program was qualified and quantified by workout type (specific and nonspecific) and training zone; net training times were calculated
Zones by blood lactate: zone 1 below 2 mmol/L, zone 2 2-4 mmol/L, zone 3 above 4 mmol/L; net training times calculated, specific and nonspecific workouts separated.
Key Findings
The share of training in zone 1 rose over time (r = .96, P < .01); the shares in zone 2 (r = -.94) and zone 3 (r = -.97) both fell (P < .01).
Total training hours did not rise progressively across the Olympiads (not significant).
Neither speed-skating hours (r = -.11) nor inline-skating hours (r = -.86) had a significant relation with time.
The authors read this as a shift toward polarized training over 38 years and call it the most important factor in the development of Olympic speed skaters — an interpretation of a historical correlation, not a tested cause.
Practical Application
Across 38 years of Olympic-medal-winning speed-skating programs, the fraction of training below 2 mmol/L lactate rose (r = .96) while the 2-4 and >4 mmol/L fractions fell, with no rise in total hours — the successful programs moved toward a larger low-intensity share, not more volume.
Inference, not tested: build the skater's year on a large low-intensity base with a smaller high-intensity share rather than chasing more hours; the study cannot show that this shift caused the medals.
Limitations
Retrospective single-nation cohort built from interviews and programs; intensity definitions and monitoring evolved across the decades.
Correlations with calendar time across 10 Olympiads. Inference, not tested: other changes in the sport over those decades (equipment, indoor ovals) are not separated from the training shift.
Both zone 2 and zone 3 shares fell, so "polarized" is the authors' label; the reported pattern is simply more zone 1.
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
regraded 2026-09-27 from B+: retrospective correlational analysis of coaches' programs, sample size not given in the abstract
Content correction 2026-09-27
"Across 38 years skaters trained a pyramidal/polarized distribution" -> the abstract reports a SHIFT over time: zone 1 share rose, zone 2 and zone 3 shares both fell; total hours did not rise.
Added the abstract's correlations and zone definitions; "resist raising the hard fraction" advice relabelled as inference.
Level B+ -> B: retrospective correlational analysis, sample size not given.
PMID 23799826 -> 24408352, the PubMed record returned by searching this DOI.
2026-09-28: added Protocol from the abstract (Europe PMC/PubMed PMID 24408352).