Olympians travel to these rugged places to train. So can you

After watching so many impressive Olympic performances, you may be inspired to ratchet up your fitness routine or sports practice. You may even wish you could try an Olympic-caliber workout to see what it's like.

While there are several Olympic training centers in the United States reserved for elite athletes, that's not where most Olympic hopefuls train. Most simply work out in the region where they live, sometimes traveling to a training camp or special locale once or twice a year, said Todd Buckingham, a world champion triathlete and exercise physiologist at Michigan's Mary Free Bed Sports Rehabilitation Performance Lab.

"This is usually to train with other elite athletes and create the optimal training environment without any outside distractions," he said.

These camps and special spots are often in mountainous areas where athletes can train at elevation, or where a particular sport is especially popular. Here are four places where Olympians often gather -- and where you can work out, too.

Important note: Before beginning any new exercise program, consult your doctor. Stop immediately if you experience pain.

Soldier Hollow, Midway, Utah

Soldier Hollow Nordic Center (shown above) is tucked into the Wasatch Mountains and was the site of the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics for biathlon and cross-country skiing. While many elites train here, its 16 miles of trail (26 kilometers) are open to everyone. Five-time Olympian Kikkan Randall said it's one of her favorite places to ski.

"While Soldier Hollow has Olympic-caliber trails, they've done a good job making them accessible for beginners all the way up to elites," she said.

Challenge you can try: Randall's "one-third" workout. Select one of the easy trails, then warm up for 15 or 20 minutes. Next, elevate your pace for another 15 or 20 minutes before cooling down for the same length of time. "You should be breathing a little hard in the middle, but not feeling any heaviness in your muscles," she said.

Manitou Incline, Manitou Springs, Colorado

The Manitou Incline is a 2,744-step outdoor staircase that pitches nearly 2,000 vertical feet (600 meters) in just under 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). Some sections feature a whopping 68% grade. Initially a cable car track used to ferry pipeline materials to Pikes Peak. It morphed into a cable car tourist attraction and then, in 2013, into a unique hiking trail.

The Manitou Incline, in Manitou Springs, Colorado, gains almost 2,000 feet of elevation over less than 1 mile.

 

Some 70,000 people tackle the Incline annually, including scores of athletes from the US Olympic Training Center and US Air Force Academy in nearby Colorado Springs. While it takes the average person an hour or more to reach the top, many elite athletes can summit in less than 30 minutes. The current speed record is a blistering 17:45, set In 2015 by runner Joseph Gray just a few weeks after he competed in the World Mountain Running Championships.

Challenge you can try: Hiking to the top without stopping. If that's too difficult, rest as often as needed. You can also get off at the Bailout, a false summit 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) up the incline. The Bailout connects with the Barr Trail, an easy path leading back down the mountain. Stopping at the Bailout also allows you to avoid the steepest portion of the trail.

Mt. Lemmon Highway, Tucson, Arizona

Cyclists looking for a challenge love biking up the Mt. Lemmon Highway, from its base in Tucson at some 2,550 feet (777 meters) of elevation to its peak in Summerhaven at 8,200 feet (2,500 meters). While the average grade is only 4.2%, it's a nearly 30-mile (48-kilometer) trek. 

The scenic Mt. Lemmon Highway near Tucson, Arizona, offers a challenging trek for cyclists.

 

Pro road-racing cyclists and the US Army West Point Triathlon Team have been spotted training on Mt. Lemmon. It's tradition among many riders who summit to celebrate their accomplishment at the Mt. Lemmon Cookie Cabin, where the favored indulgence is the Ice Cream Cookie: a plate-size cookie topped with four scoops of ice cream, a towering mound of whipped cream and as many toppings as you can handle.

Challenge you can try: Cycling to the summit. Start at the intersection of Tanque Verde Road and Catalina Highway and bike slowly but steadily to Summerhaven. If that's too much, there are rest stops at miles 5.5, 12, 14 and 21 where you can take a break or turn around.

Forest Park, Portland, Oregon

Forest Park in Portland, Oregon, has more than 80 miles of trail that wind around the Tualatin Mountains.

 

Many elite runners live and train in the Portland area, which is also home to Nike World Headquarters. And one of their go-to spots to run is Forest Park, said Andrew Schupp, owner of Schupp Chiropractic & Sports Injuries in Madison, Wisconsin. Schupp, a former collegiate runner at Michigan State University, regularly spotted Olympians there while attending chiropractic school in Portland.

The 5,200-acre (2.1-squre-meter) park features more than 80 miles (129 kilometers) of trail that wind around the Tualatin Mountains. Its two main paths, Wildwood Trail and Leif Erikson Drive, feature distance markers every quarter mile. The trails at Forest Park are generally rolling, although there are plenty of taxing climbs, Schupp said.

Challenge you can try: Intervals on a hilly stretch. After warming up, Schupp suggested running hard for one minute, then easy for one minute; then hard for two minutes and easy for one; then hard for three minutes and easy for two; then reversing back down. If you want more of a challenge, he said to try some hill repeats on Firelane 1. "Firelane 1 is a massive hill," Schupp said, "so it's a tough workout."

Once you've tried an Olympic-caliber workout, it's important to do what Olympians do next: Get plenty of rest. Obtaining adequate rest is something many regular athletes ignore, said Dr. Rand McClain, an osteopath and chief medical officer at LCR Health, a regenerative and sports medicine facility in Santa Monica, California.

"Without rest (and good nutrition), all the training in the world will not result in gains in fitness," he said. "And, in fact, it could result in overtraining and reduced fitness."

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China's Eileen Gu wins gold in freeski halfpipe to make Olympic history

China's freeski sensation Eileen Gu won her second gold of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Friday, becoming the first freestyle skier to bag three medals at a single Games.

The 18-year-old superstar topped the podium in the halfpipe final at Zhangjiakou's Genting Snow Park, adding to her gold in the big air event last week and silver in slopestyle on Tuesday.

Gu, who says halfpipe is her strongest event, dominated from the start.

Again and again, she sped up the wall of the halfpipe and launched herself skyward, spinning and twisting gracefully to loud cheers from fans in the stands.

Already firmly in the lead, she outdid herself in the second run with an impressive score of 95.25. She was already assured of the gold by the time she set off on a third run victory lap.

Gu gave her coach a big hug at the top of the slope, came down the halfpipe once again and finished the ride with easy jumps, posing and celebrating her victory in midair.

"I've never taken a victory lap before in my entire life, so I felt like, 'You know what, last event at the Olympics it feels like I finally deserve it'. I'm really happy," Gu told reporters after her win, according to the Olympic site.

"It has been two straight weeks of the most intense highs and lows I've ever experienced in my life. It has changed my life forever," she said.

Reflecting on her first and history-making Olympic Games, Gu said her overriding emotion was a "deep-seated sense of gratitude and resolution."

"Just like this all coming together, years and years in the making and it's like letting out a deep breath. I feel exhausted. I mean, God, from opening ceremony until now I've been skiing every single day so I'm really tired, but I feel at peace. I feel grateful. I feel passionate, and I feel proud," she said.

China's Eileen Gu made Winter Olympics history on Friday by winning her third freeski medal.

 

Canada's Cassie Sharpe claimed silver with a best score of 90.75, with her teammate Rachael Karker taking bronze. An emotional Gu embraced both of them as they posed for photos after event.

She also wore a panda hat as she received her Bing Dwen Dwen replica mascot on the podium, causing a stir among her fans on Chinese social media.

A breakout star

The Beijing 2022 Olympics have been a breakthrough moment for Gu as she became one of the biggest stars of the Games.

Born and raised in California, Gu chose in 2019 to compete for China, where she is known as Gu Ailing. In the lead-up to the Games, her popularity skyrocketed, with her face splashed across billboards, commercials, magazine covers and on state television.

And since the Games got underway, she has become a national sensation, earning more than 5 million fans on social media site Weibo.

She was hailed as the "pride of China" after winning her first gold, and has since won more medals than anyone else for Team China at these Games. Following her final victory in the halfpipe, China now boasts eight gold medals -- the same as the United States (although China's total medal count lags behind the US.)

But Gu has played down the national rivalry in the sport.

"One thing I love so much about freeskiing is this camaraderie and this spirit of support in which it's not about what country you're skiing for, it's about our shared passion for the sport and this unique ability for this extreme sport to unite people because we're not here to break limits for a country, we're here to break the human limit," she said.

"It's not about nationality, it's about bringing people together. It's about sharing culture. It's about learning from each other and forging friendships."

Though Gu switched to compete for China, it's unclear whether she renounced her American citizenship -- usually a requirement for Chinese naturalization, since the country does not allow dual citizenship. She has repeatedly dodged questions about her citizenship while highlighting her dual identity, often saying: "When I'm in China, I'm Chinese. When I'm in the US, I'm American."

Reporters press Eileen Gu over her citizenship. See her response

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Russian skater Kamila Valieva's drug regimen 'raises questions' following hearing

 

Hear from US anti-doping chief on what the new revelation on Valieva could mean

Kamila Valieva -- the teenage Russian figure skater at the center of a doping controversy roiling the Beijing Olympics -- had three substances that can be used to aid the heart in her testing sample, according to a report in the New York Times, which cited an exhibit filed in a Sunday hearing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Two of those substances, Hypoxen and the supplement L-carnitine, are not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which regulates the use of drugs in international sport. Valieva declared both of these on a doping control form, according to a court application allegedly filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a case raised after it came to light that Valieva tested positive for a banned substance in December.

Kamila Valieva of Team ROC skates during the women's singles competition on Tuesday in Beijing.

 

The London-based Dossier Center, an investigative website run by an exiled Russian businessman, published part of the WADA court application online and it was reviewed for CNN by Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The Dossier Center did not publish the doping control form or the test report exhibited in the case, and CNN has not reviewed them.

CNN has reached out to the CAS and the parties involved in Valieva's arbitration hearing to confirm the validity of the court application published by the Dossier Center and has yet to hear back. CNN has also reached out to the WADA accredited lab in Sweden which tested Valieva's sample from December for comment. Tygart, who is not involved in the investigation into the Russian skater, described the application published by the Dossier Center as "accurate and legitimate."

The 15-year-old skater has been in the spotlight since it emerged days into the Olympics that she tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine, which experts say can enhance endurance. Valieva has sought to blame the positive test on contamination from medication taken by her grandfather, an IOC official familiar with the CAS hearing said on Tuesday.

The presence of the additional substances raises further questions about the skater's drug use, according to Tygart. USADA tried to ban Hypoxen in 2017 due to its performance-enhancing capabilities, but that ban was not implemented, Tygart told CNN.

"It raises a whole host of questions that have yet to be determined and what appears to be the case of a pretty deliberate attempt to use substances in order to enhance performance," Tygart said.

"The picture it paints is, you've got a ​15-year-old. Does she have the wherewithal and the knowledge and the financial resources to find and use two drugs, one of which is prohibited TMZ (Trimetazidine) and another one Hypoxen, [along with] L-carnitine (a supplement) -- to increase endurance and reduce fatigue?," he said.

According to the application published by the Dossier Center, Valieva's mother testified in a provisional hearing that the athlete took one of the substances, Hypoxen, "to treat 'heart variations.'"

Supradyn, which can be used as an immunity boosting supplement, was also listed on Valieva's doping control form, according to the application.

Valieva's positive test for trimetazidine, though taken in December, was only analyzed and reported to Russia's anti-doping agency in February, resulting in Valieva's suspension on February 8 -- a day after she helped propel the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to a gold-medal finish in the figure skating team event.

But the skater was reinstated after an appeal, and the CAS on Monday allowed her to compete in the Olympics, citing specific provisions related to her protected status as minor, while investigations into any doping violations by Valieva and the adults responsible for her training continue.

An emotional Valieva came out at the top after the short program of the women's singles competition on Tuesday. She will compete in the second portion of the event -- where she is the favorite for gold -- on Thursday.

Russian athletes competing at the Olympics are already under the shadow of a history of illegal doping: WADA barred Russia from international competitions in 2019 over doping violations. Under the ban set to expire later this year, they've only been able to participate as neutrals in the Games.

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