The total ban on fluoride in waxing products, the use of which is catastrophic for health and the environment, is definitely no small feat. First announced for the 2020-2021 season, it has since been constantly postponed, until the big mess last summer. While the Antholz-Anterselva World Cup stage starts this Thursday with the ladies’ sprint (2:30 p.m.), the biathlon season is following its course with rules that are ultimately unchanged, while the International Federation (IBU) and the technical teams of all countries are continuing the tests with the aim of finally being able to take the plunge in the fall of 2023.
“That no one can doubt the machine”
A little throwback to a few months, to begin with. Last April, the IBU was sure, this time it was the right one. But after drawing the official press release in which she declared that she had developed “an effective method, guaranteeing reliable tests” to detect fluorine on the skis of athletes, she was forced to backpedal. Several waxing cell managers had noted holes in the racket. And not little ones. “It’s much easier to fool the machine than we thought. Unfortunately, it’s easy to hide that you used fluoride. With a little more preparation, we managed to deceive the device in 50% of all the tests”, assured for example the Norwegian Tobias Dahl Fenre in a newspaper article Expressen dated May.
This is a lot, and it will be confirmed later by two new weeks of tests in June and July, organized at the initiative of the IBU. No choice, in August, it had to be announced that the new rules would not come into force until the 2023-2024 season. Only products containing the famous PFOA molecule (perfluorooctanoic acid), the most toxic of allremained prohibited, under the European directive coming into force in July 2021.
“This postponement is logical, believes the boss of the technicians of the France team, Grégoire Deschamps. When a ban is put in place, the reliability of the control machine must be 100%. If tomorrow I have to tell Quentin [Fillon Maillet] 20 minutes from the start that he can’t run because his skis don’t pass, no one must be able to doubt the machine. It’s a highly publicized sport now, and you have to be able to trust the device. »
QFM fans can be reassured, this scenario is purely fictitious. It just depicts what the stakes will be when the ban is in place. The machine, called “Alpha II” and similar to a gun with which the temperature is taken, probes the ski at three points (top, middle, bottom). The rate of fluoride will have to be less than 1% for the athlete to be able to start, when today we are on rates of between 25 and 30% at the end of the race.
Collaboration
If the device, developed in collaboration with the American company Bruker and the German research institute Frauhofer (contacted in vain for this paper), is not yet reliable, progress has however been made in recent months. Its portability from one competition site to another and its speed of execution of tests have been greatly improved, in particular. It now takes 45 seconds to scan the three points of a ski. Still not enough, the objective is that it doesn’t take more than 30 seconds to have time to control the hundred competitors before the start of each race, explained to us last year Pierre Mignerey, in charge of the file for the International Ski Federation (and today DTN of the French Federation).
The small world of biathlon, initially reluctant to show its scullery, is getting its hands dirty to get things done. The technicians of each delegation do not count their hours to help the IBU. “We are aware that fluorine-free is the future of our discipline. We are all concerned, all invested, to find the safest possible solution”, poses Grégoire Deschamps. In parallel with these tests, the person in charge of tricolor glide is experimenting with new waxing products without fluorine, which are being developed by manufacturers.
Apparently there is still work to be done. “They are making progress, especially on very cold snow, but it will take years to reach the level of fluorine in terms of performance,” he observes. It is by far the most hydrophobic product ever made. The industry must take a step back and find new molecules, with an ecological and benevolent approach, otherwise it is useless. »
Blank page
When these specifications are met, it will then be a question of taming the new products to find the best possible glide. Because all the art of waxing is there: know how to get the right product, make the right mix, with the right dosages, in relation to the type of snow offered. What makes the difference between a good waxer and a bad waxer? “We are going to make a blank page, start from scratch. You have to recreate data, experience, ”explains Grégoire Deschamps, who gets started with his team as soon as he has a little free time during the season.
One can imagine the vertigo, and the fear, perhaps, of seeing France lose its place among the dominant nations of the discipline. The results of biathletes largely depend on the quality of waxing. “You have to take it as a challenge, says the technician. I’ve been doing this job for 18 years, I’ve always worked with fluorine. It’s a new stage in my career that is coming, there is an exciting side to it. The biathletes will surely have to accept at first the fact of going a little slower on skis. Even Johannes Boe, yes.