For cross-country skiers at the Milano Cortina Olympics winning a medal does not just depend on having great skis, it is also about how those skis are treated and the team of people who know exactly what to do to create the optimal glide.
Fast skiing depends on a range of external factors: varying snow conditions, fickle temperatures and variable terrain. That means each athlete on the World Cup tour must travel across multiple countries with a truckload of Nordic ski equipment.
"A full-time World Cup skier usually has somewhere between 50 and 70 pairs of skis. Some athletes even break the 100-pair mark, which can work but it definitely adds a whole new layer of chaos," said Chris Hecker, one of the U.S. ski team's wax techs.
They are essentially a group of amateur physicists, meteorologists and craftspeople all bundled into one.
For U.S. athletes, the massive ski fleet is stored in Yolanda, a semi-truck that doubles as a waxing workshop and storage space, at times holding up to 700 sets of skis for the nearly two dozen Americans on the World Cup tour circuit.
One reason for all the equipment is that cross-country racers need specific skis for the two disciplines in their sport: skate and classic skiing.
Skate skis are set up for a side-to-side skating motion, akin to ice-skating. Classic skis, used for a kick-and-glide technique that is similar to running, are longer and have a grip section under the foot for traction.
Making the right decision for what wax to use on skis can be vital.
Knut Nystad, former waxing chief for Norway's ski team, discovered this the hard way during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, reportedly receiving a barrage of angry messages and fierce public criticism for the team's poor performance.
Arch-rivals Sweden took the gold while Norway finished fourth in the men's 4x10 km relay race.
Norway’s skiers struggled in the warm conditions of the Black Sea coastal city, using far more energy than their rivals, while Sweden appeared to glide more efficiently in the soft snow, a moment that became a lasting lesson for waxing teams.
"It was a waxing mess," Nystad told reporters.
ELABORATE SPREADSHEET
American Jessie Diggins, one of the best female cross-country skiers in the world, is well aware of how important having the right skis can be.
"I'll probably roll into the Olympics with 50 to 60 pairs of skis - that covers skate and classic - and I'll probably be getting those ground and reground at the Games," she told Reuters.
The level of grind -- the process of flattening and structuring the bottom of the ski -- can make a big difference and Diggins' coach and wax pro Jason Cork keeps a spreadsheet to track and evaluate which are going to be the best for a race.
He has storage space to hold 66 skis for Diggins - which he says coincides with how many he can keep track of in his head.
"There’s the basic information: ski number; classic/skate; and stone grind. There are a couple more esoteric pieces of information: the mold the ski was made in; the construction type; the base material; a classification of the ski (green for very cold conditions to yellow for wet and transformed snow); production year and date; and which factory they came from,” he said.
Each pair of skis is given a score when it is used, based on speed as well as kick and feeling. Cork keeps a running average for each ski, as well as the number of times it has been tested.
“A pair that’s a 9.89 after 20 tests is probably more reliable than a pair with a perfect score on one test,” he said.
Cork has had 338 pairs of skis in his possession for Diggins since the start of the 2014 season.
Ski selection for races is done tournament style, with athletes trying out a single ski on each foot for comparison and eliminating skis that are not as fast or do not have the right feel.
"As soon as a pair of skis isn't making the cut, it gets traded back and then I get new ones," said Diggins in an interview ahead of this season's World Cup tour.
It is still too soon to predict the conditions athletes will face at next month's Olympics in the Northern Alps of Italy, but last year’s World Championships in Norway offered valuable preparation for fluctuating and challenging conditions.
"One day brought cold, the next pouring rain; then full sun followed by a total blizzard. There was no chance to settle into any rhythm, we had to treat every single day as a completely new problem to solve," said Hecker.
“Even with the unpredictability, we still had standout successes ... These moments showed what the athletes and staff could accomplish despite the conditions and sometimes because of them," he said.
REUTERS
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