NEWS FEATURE Wax cabins and speed suits: the science behind skiing faster By Andre Leslie, dpa

The Pyeongchang Olympics brings the world‘s best alpine skiers together in one place. With everyone on the mountain already skiing seriously fast, science can help find the hundredths of a second difference between winning and losing.Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - From ski technicians to high performance directors and scientists, the back office for alpine skiing is pretty considerable. In fact, getting the competitive edge is not just about getting your skis prepared well. As always, it is a question of size, with most of the larger European or North American alpine teams sporting a small troupe of scientists, on the mountain during these days of Olympic competition, while athletes from smaller nations are often guided in Pyeongchang by just a coach and a ski technician. Troy Taylor, the high performance manager of the US ski team, is a veteran of "quite a few Olympic Games." He says that, although recording athlete data in alpine skiing is difficult, his team still spend plenty of time doing it anyway."We are nomadic, meaning that getting on-the-hill performance data is challenging," he explains. "We obviously track a lot of time-related data, both officially and in training.""We also measure things like force, power and strength output and training load data - the number of runs and intensity of those runs," he explains.The key is to keep the information flowing back to the athletes, although doing that during competition is pretty tricky, he admits. The best option is to prepare well, all year round. Behind the scenes, the science for the US ski team started months ago. Together with ski apparel maker Spyder, the US developed a one-piece ski suit for the Games called the Velocity 18. After wind tunnel tests and on-snow trials, and reportedly working through some 50 prototypes, the suit finally hit the slopes in Pyeongchang. Each athlete‘s suit is made to measure. The outfit fits skin tight so the drag is reduced as much as possible, but still allows for plenty of movement when the skier is at top speed.Over at the French ski team, scientist Nicolas Coulmy has helped develop a snow measurement model, based on avalanche technology, for predicting temperatures throughout the day. The system is something that he is using during the Games. "It‘s very important for preparing the skis," he explains. "Snow temperatures depend on the time of the day."It depends on your start number. If a skier is an early starter the snow is not the same as if he or she starts later." Coulmy, a former national team skier with a doctorate in biomechanics, also conducts motion analysis on the athletes. He says not much can be done on that area of science right now, with the Games in full swing.But, for most alpine skiers, ski preparation remains one of the biggest factors in going fast. A well waxed set of skis with sharp edges helps maximize speed and control, crucial to setting a top time. Andrej Cerin works all year round as a ski technician for the Slovenian alpine team. He says that the snow in Pyeongchang, which is mainly artificial, is different to Europe‘s, so he has to make the ski edges sharper than normal.On the eve of a race he sometimes spends up to seven hours preparing three sets of skis for one athlete. On race morning he will also apply a speed spray and a special powder, depending on the conditions. It‘s all in the hope of shaving hundredths of a second off his athlete‘s times. As seen last Saturday for Ester Ladecka, as she stormed to a surprise win in the super-g, that can sometimes be the difference between fame or failure.