Organizers sprung into action when the decision was made to shift the national cross-country skiing Olympic trials to the mountains near Vernon, B.C. With less than a fortnight to ready the venue for the competition spanning from Sunday to Tuesday, the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club had a list of tasks to tackle, including trail grooming, volunteer management, and the establishment of a ski wax testing facility.
Wax plays a pivotal role in enabling athletes to maneuver smoothly on snow surfaces. However, the use of fluorinated ski waxes, containing fluorocarbon compounds known as PFAs, has been prohibited in elite competitions due to environmental and health risks. This necessitated the setup of a testing station at the Sovereign Lake club, a first-time initiative according to Mike Bell, a dedicated volunteer and seasoned coach at the ski resort.
The originally planned venue for the Olympic trials, Prince George, faced snow shortage issues, prompting the relocation to Vernon.
Given the compressed timeline, Mike Bell devised a system to facilitate swift and efficient random testing for fluorocarbon, or “fluor,” on numerous skis throughout the competition period.
Rows of ski racks were set up by Bell and his volunteer team for the testing process. Race officials then extracted small samples from the ski bottoms for molecular analysis of the wax using light spectroscopy.
