INTRODUCTION: Winter sports events are generally performed at low to moderate altitudes, requesting prior acclimatization/acclimation (the classical "living high" paradigm) to counteract the negative effect of lower oxygen availability (physiology) and reduced air resistance (skill components). However, the evolving boundaries of altitude/hypoxic training [1] as well as the potential of other environmental stress-based interventions (e.g. hyperoxia for recovery or heat for cross-adaptation) tested in summer sports contribute to an increase body of knowledge and evidence that could be translated to winter sports. METHODS: The literature indexed on Pubmed related to environmental stress-based training in winter sports (n = 80) was searched and reviewed and further accompanied by our latest summer sport athlete-centered research involving environmental stress intervention to improve performance (6 endurance, combat and team sports, n = 92). RESULTS/DISCUSSION: Besides acclimatization/acclimation approaches, passive modalities (e.g. ischemic pre-conditioning) and active modalities using either local (blood flow restriction) and/or systemic hypoxia (e.g. repeated-sprint training in hypoxia, resistance training in hypoxia) already benefited winter sports such as cross-country skiing or ice hockey [2, 3]. Further advancement from summer sports using the combination of chronic altitude/hypoxic exposure with acute hypoxic training [4, 5] or heat alternative for cross-adaptation emanating from the last summer Olympic preparation provide some new insights for physiological (hematological and non-hematological) adaptation and performance enhancement, potentially transferable to winter sports. CONCLUSION: The continued evolution of winter sports contributes to the emergence of new training methods to improve athlete`s preparation and/or performance. In addition, the findings from summer sports also open new training perspectives for many winter sports, with experience of the French teams for Paris 2024 paving the way for Milano Cortina 2026 and French Alps 2030.
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