FIS Postpones Fluorinated Wax Ban for a Year

[Philpug]

FIS Postpones Fluorinated Wax Ban for a Year - What This Means for You The FIS just announced the last minute postponement of the fluorinated wax ban that they had announced and continued to confirm over the past year. The new plan is to implement this for the 2021/22 season. Why the ban was planned in the first place To protect waxers and the environment from contamination of fluorine Why the ban was postponed Because the handheld fluorine scanning devices which are needed to ensure compliance with the ban are still not available (not yet produced). The quantity that was going to be available was also woefully inadequate (5-10 worldwide to serve all of the disciplines including men's and women's racing in Alpine S, GS, SG, D, Ski Cross, Aerials and bumps, Cross Country Skiing, Nordic Combined, Snowboard technical events, SBX, Snowboard and Ski big air, and Ski Jumping. There wouldn't have even been enough scanners to cover world cup events much less domestic events such as national championships, Nor/Ams, Europa Cups/OPA cups, and elite junior events. Because the scanners are not available, there was also no consensus established on the amount of fluorine that would be allowed on the bases the first year and then also for the second year (a lesser amount) before adopting a zero tolerance policy the third year. There was also concern about the accuracy of the scanners as when they tested the prototype there was a great variation in the values depending on the tester. Finally there was also dissatisfaction that the planned penalty for testing "red" (above the allowed threshold of fluorine on the base) was only going to be a disqualification for that day's event which is clearly not a very good deterrent for trying to gain an edge especially when using the banned waxes could yield a huge advantage, greater even than doping or other traditional forms of cheating. This small penalty coupled with the lack of controls (too few or no scanners) made it an easy decision to postpone for a year. What does this mean for American skiers and snowboarders? We need to hear from US Ski and Snowboard and from all of the various regional divisional organizations, but my expectation is that this will change nothing except for events where athletes compete in to qualify for 2020/21 World Cup events. This winter's World Cup events are very important in all disciplines especially as valuable points can be gained which would count greatly toward Olympic team qualification. For this reason, I think that these FIS sanctioned and elite races (regional this year due to Covid) will probably allow fluorine use (need to wait for comment from the USSS). My expectation though is that all other races where fluorine was planned to be banned will stay unchanged (junior and youth racing for example). There are some citizens/masters/beer league type events where what waxes could be used are up to the event organizers. In many cases they hadn't commented yet as to what could be used for the coming winter anyway. I recommend waiting for their communication on this as it is up to them. There are also some locations (ski areas) that have banned the use of fluorinated waxes on their premises. I am confident that this will hold true except perhaps if/when such a FIS race is held where athletes can qualify for World Cup. This only affects very few people and these people will definitely receive clear instruction from the USSS and the event organizers as to what the rules are. The situation being what it is (no scanners and no time to evaluate them and the testing protocol and allowable fluorine thresholds), I don't think that the FIS had any choice but to postpone the ban for a year. There was strong pressure coming especially from Norway and Germany for them to postpone as without scanners and established protocols a platform to compete in fair sport could not be provided. Here is the link to the FIS announcement made just a few minutes ago today.

 

[ScotsSkier]

time to head to the landfill to find all the flouro wax I threw out......,

waiting to hear what USSS comes out with but without any way of checking would seem pointless to not postpone it....

 

[cantunamunch]

waiting to hear what USSS comes out with but without any way of checking would seem pointless to not postpone it....

+ given that manufacturers have largely suspended production, postponement lets existing stocks be quietly used up - resulting in a lower incident rate when they do enforce it.

 

[ScotsSkier]

+ given that manufacturers have largely suspended production, postponement lets existing stocks be quietly used up - resulting in a lower incident rate when they do enforce it.

let's be realistic, most of it would have still have been used up quietly anyway since there was no testing equipment ready. Only it would have been done beforehand and there would not be the same activity in the start corral applying overlays.

 

[Philpug]

From what I am to understand. There were only 10 devices world wide that could test for floros. Not 10 devices for each race..10 total ...world wide. There is no way they could police this...it sounds like it was premature to try to do this ban.

 

[S.H.]

They could enforce this on World Cup alpine only if they wanted to this year. The XC side, given the sheer number of skis, is probably impossible without more devices. And when you add in all the other disciplines ... yeah. Can't happen.

Below the continental cup level ... I think they should leave the ban in place, tbh. There wasn't going to be any enforcement anyway.

 

[SpikeDog]

I wonder how FIS would do the fluorine analysis? Handheld instruments are rather rare, as most F analysis is done with dissolution as the first step.

Do you think that kind of technology is easy, or cheap?

 

[cantunamunch]

I wonder how FIS would do the fluorine analysis?

I figured it had to be XPS of some sort, probably looking for peak shifts in C-C bonds.

 

[crgildart]

What ever happened to the honor system?

 

[tube77]

What ever happened to the honor system?

Has the honor system ever worked in the elite sports? No way..
Ski racing is the sports what hundi matters.. The winner takes it all...

 

[Primoz]

Main thing is not number of devices (I'm sure with todays technology you can build 100s of them litteraly over night) but the way they measure that and results given. There was test a while ago, with 3 or 4 different devices where each of them showed different number for same ski. As based on current rules (regardless of date), old skis will be allowed to be used, which means it's not about if there is fluoro in base or not, but about how much fluoro there is and if it's under or above limit. With that, you need to have exactly same number as result every single time you test, regardless of device or test. And that's not what is happening now.
I have been talking with few old friends from xc side, and they all agreed that this is actually worse then doping. With current state of testing, you could actually get more profit out of this, then you would with doping. And that was reason why German Biathlon team said more then month ago already, they will boycott IBU World cup races if this won't be resolved and results will be very clear, not like they are currently. And some 2 or 3 weeks ago, Norwegian xc team said same for their racers, that they won't be racing World cup if this won't be resolved. And biathlon with Germans, and xc without Norwegians is something that just doesn't work, so I'm not really surprised to see this postponement.

 

[bbbradley]

Lack of devices is a problem, but with a random testing and harsher penalties there will be some level of deterrent. Without an effective testing process/method/device, it is a non-starter.

Time to get the respirator on and the flouro out!

 

[snwbrdr]

Maybe I should sell some of the RaceWax FluoroMax I stocked up on....

 

[Primoz]

Everyone still have their stock... I was joking I will get life supply of HF fluoro overlays now that they can't use them anymore, but none of my friends was willing to part their stock until it will be official.