February 14, 2014 – Following today’s 15km CL men’s individual start in warm conditions and Canada’s lacklustre performance again due to waxing issues which resulted in slow skis, Canadian Head Coach Justin Wadsworth shared some comments on the situation. Team favourite, Alex Harvey, who is ready to fight for a historic first-ever men’s Olympic medal, abandoned today’s race to conserve energy for the upcoming Team Sprint. Harvey suffered a similar waxing fate on day two of the Games in the men’s 30km Skiathlon making for more head-scratching in the Canadian camp.

“The problem today was with the kick wax itself and we’ve debriefed a little bit just after the race right now with the guys and they said the skis were really slow. The kick wasn’t as much as an issue as the speed and we double checked the splits…so Alex [Harvey], for example, was with [Alexey] Poltoranin here in the stadium and then at the bottom of the downhill and one short,  400-meter loop, he was 15 seconds behind,” commented Wadsworth who recently made international headlines when he helped Russian Anton Gafarov with his broken ski during the men’s Sprint.

“Alex felt in good shape and was ready to fight. He said he tried to draft Poltoranin and was pushing hard and felt good but Poltoranin just left him so we know it’s a speed issue with the kick wax because that’s the limiting factor normally in these kind of conditions… it’s not the glide wax that’s holding the skis back,” he explained.

The warm temperatures and sloppy snow conditions in Sochi have made for challenging times for all teams. The Canucks, who had solid skis and results prior to the Games, are now feeling the brunt of missing the wax, and thus potential medals.

“Our techs are back on the course re-testing everything right now because they are obviously very frustrated with the situation. It’s not an application issue. I think it’s an actual wax issue or an issue with our test skis. I mean, maybe the test skis are a little bit more stiff so they’re not feeling the wax as much so we’ll obviously look at that too,” continued Wadsworth.

“We have two sets of kick wax test skis – one pair that’s softer for hard wax and one that’s stiffer for klister. We have to look and maybe we have to test the wax with the softer pair of skis to be more transferable over to the athletes’ skis. I know they’re looking at that.

“We debrief after every race and as well after most days of testing and we look at everything. It’s also hard though when you can’t compare to other countries when you’re out testing before the race. It’s really hard because there are different weights, and different skis that you’re dealing with and our skis and glide wax is different,” added Wadsworth.

At the halfway point of the Games the Canadian camp is hoping their waxing woes are behind them and they can focus on the business at hand – Olympic hardware. This weekend sees the Team Relays followed by the Team Sprint and then the mammoth 30km and 50km contests close the Games.