The Canadian National Cross Country Ski Championship (aka Ski Nationals) is the first big test of the 2010 Olympic venue. Over 700 athletes and coaches are expected! In fact many athletes from other countries - the entire US National Team, for one - are participating because they too want to see how this Olympic course stacks up.
The biggest worry everyone has is getting the wax right. The high humidity in the snow at Callaghan has all these coaches worried. Word is out that the snow in Callaghan is reminiscent of Nagano in 2008. At that games many of the top skiers failed to podium because their waxes weren't working.
How worried are they? The Swedish team has approached a local ski shop to test waxes for them and is even sending some no wax skis for testing! Last month I saw the Norwegian wax techs out on the snow with their 20 pairs of skis and wax table, testing glide!
So what is Team DHL doing to get ready? We've been testing waxes in Callaghan for some time now. We are prepping the Team's skis by hot boxing (a "ski oven" which we stick skis saturated with wax into so that we can get deeper penetration of the wax into the ski base).
The conditions in Callaghan are changing constantly so until race day we don't know for sure if we dialed the waxes in properly. It's quite the science to get the wax right. We encourage everyone to come out and watch to see if we did!
- Tony, Team DHL Coach
