The fluoride ban launched by the international skiing federation FIS is in use for the second season. Although the ban is recent, its effects can be seen especially in the results lists of the women’s World Cup competitions.
As experts assessed even before the ban came into force, the removal of fluoride creams, which have by far the most leveled the power relations between skis for more than 30 years, emphasizes the importance of the ski pack and maintenance teams used by the athlete.
In other words: the reform falls on the shoulders of the big skiing countries in a sport that desperately needs more international competition than it currently has.
The ski circles’ prediction of growing differences has come true, especially in the women’s series, where the level differences were large even before the ban.
While in the season before the ban, the woman who finished in 10th place in the 10-kilometer split starts was an average of 46 seconds behind the winner, in the 2023–2024 season the difference increased to 58 seconds. The average difference between the winner and the 30th ranked skier also increased from 1.44 to 1.59.
In the first two intermediate starts of this season, the differences between the sharpest point and the athletes competing behind it have grown even more. The 10th-place finisher in Ruka and Lillehammer was more than a minute and 20 seconds behind the winner. The athlete who skied to the 30th place was 2.22 behind the first in Ruka and almost three minutes behind in Lillehammer (2.52).
Differences between men have also grown, but not at all on the same scale as for women.
– When the difference between the winner and the 30th place is more than ten percent, we are talking about a huge difference, who served as Finland’s maintenance manager 2020–2021 Martin Norrgard says and refers to the differences between women in Ruka and Lillehammer’s intermediate departures.
In the comparison, only the intermediate starts have been taken into account, because in races with a joint start format, the pees advantage evens out equipment differences.
The head coach of the national team Teemu Pasanen According to
– No matter how hard you try, you can’t make two identical skis. A ski with a certain profile, grind, hand grind and stiffness always performs differently in different weather – and at this point we’re not even talking about creams. Before, fluoride creams evened out the differences between skis, and the difference between a bad and a good ski was not that big. Now that fluoride-free creams don’t do that leveling, a good ski is much better than a bad one, says Pasanen.
The change can also be seen when looking at the internal results of the teams.
– One can have really good skis, one can have average skis and one can have terrible skis, even though all skis have the same cream, says Pasanen.
– Men are able to compensate for a slower ski with their power characteristics, while for women the difference becomes big with a bad ski.
As the graphic below shows, Therese Johaugin in the most dominant seasons, similar differences were seen from time to time as during the fluoride ban.
Even the big ones are in trouble
As the importance of skiing increases, the number of pairs of skis accompanying the national teams also increases. The biggest ski resorts have their own service truck, which in the case of Finland carries no less than 800 pairs of skis. The most experienced skiers store 75–80 pairs in the truck for the season.
– It doesn’t make any sense that individual skiers have two hundred pairs of skis in their truck, worked as maintenance manager of the cross country team in 1995–1998 Harri Aaltonen says.
Aaltonen insists that top skiing needs regulation and cost control. According to him, skiing is in danger of becoming similar to the World Rally Championship, where only two car manufacturers are fighting for victory with a full number of cars.
– Equipment must have limits. If they are not there, companies and countries are dropped from the World Cup. The swan song of skiing is about to be sung if the current trend continues.
Pasanen signs that the increased costs of ski maintenance are a matter of fate for the sport.
– The resource that needs to be used for maintenance in order to be competitive is a threat to this sport. Its importance should be limited. Norway is already suffering that their resources are low, and they certainly have the most resources for maintenance.
– Sweden and Norway have been able to hold test camps in the summer with a large group. No other country has been able to, says Pasanen.
Ever-increasing maintenance costs have forced the Finnish cross-country team to make changes. Among other things, the number of athletes touring the World Cup has been limited for this season. Besides that, according to Pasanen, the national team will tour the World Cup without a masseuse, physiotherapist and doctor, except for the Tour de Ski and one weekend in January.
– Everything extra has been pruned. The same is true in Norway. There is no longer a physiotherapist or masseuse there either.
The sales pitch did not materialize
FIS’s sales pitches about the costs of the fluoride ban have also caused gray hair for skiing circles. When the ban was being prepared, FIS management marketed that expensive fluoride creams would be replaced by cheaper creams.
The reality today is that the prices of fluorine-free racing creams are at the level of fluorine – and in some cases are even higher.
The number of competitors has also caused concern in the World Cup competitions. Next weekend, the World Cup will continue in Davos, Switzerland, where two years ago, a paltry 39 skiers were found on the sprint start list. For the third time, World Cup points are awarded to the top 50 in each race.
The weak snow situation in Central Europe has been a topic of conversation for ski circles for a long time.
– Bad winters, decreasing numbers of competitors, uneven competitions and, on top of that, rising prices. It’s a difficult equation. There is nothing wrong with the fluoride ban in itself, but the way it was implemented and the schedule have caused big problems that were not needed, says Martin Norrgård.
According to Pasanen, FIS has not had a dialogue with the national teams about what could be done about the sport’s pain points in view of the coming winters.
According to Pasanen, the situation of the small countries struggling behind the big skiing countries is not completely hopeless. Individual flashes of light are seen from time to time.
– The Spanish guy’s performance was one of those, says Pasanen and refers to Spain To Jaume Pueyowho finished third in the Lillehammer sprint time trial but was immediately eliminated in the first section of the heat.
– Smaller countries are helped by their small team. For example, Austria, which has a couple of skiers, needs a much smaller maintenance resource, while we have 18 athletes, Norway 25 and Sweden 23, says Pasanen.
Sharp differences in Davos
This weekend in Davos, three different races will be contested. On Friday, there will be pair sprints, on Saturday sprints and on Sunday intermediate starts. Sprints are skied in free and intermediate starts in traditional skiing.
Unlike in the season in general, this time the intermediate start is 20 kilometers long. The trip in question was contested for the last time in Lahti last March. Then Krista Pärmäkoski won. The tenth-placed skier was almost two minutes behind the Finn, and the 30th skier was a little over four minutes and ten seconds behind.
When 20 kilometers were skied as an intermediate start for the last time in Davos two years ago, the tenth place was one minute behind the winner (1.09) and the 30th place was more than three minutes (3.15) behind the winner.
Pasanen estimates that on Sunday we will be talking about differences in a completely different size class.
– The 30th could very well be more than five minutes behind the winner.
According to Pasanen, the differences are increased by the demanding track profile. In addition, the weather forecast predicts snow for both Saturday and Sunday, which makes the weather heavy.
Aaltonen describes the start of the competition as unfair for the athletes.
– It’s unfair, because there will be a fair difference in the fleet, Aaltonen says.