What Ski Wax Do Olympic Skiers Use?
Olympic ski racing is decided by thousandths of a second. At that level, wax is not a detail — it is a competitive weapon. The wax under an Olympic skier's ski can be the difference between a gold medal and fourth place.
So what wax do Olympic skiers actually use? The answer is more interesting than most people expect.
The Official Answer: It's Complicated
Most Olympic ski teams work with major European wax brands — Swix, Toko, Holmenkol — as official sponsors. These brands provide wax technicians, custom formulas, and race-day support as part of their sponsorship arrangements.
But sponsorship and performance are not always the same thing.
The Hertel Story: Racing 739™
In the 1960s, Terry Hertel developed Racing 739™ — a race wax formula so dominant on snow that it created a problem for the ski establishment.
Skiers using Racing 739™ were winning by margins of up to 4 full seconds. In alpine ski racing, where races are decided by hundredths or thousandths of a second, a 4-second margin is not a performance advantage — it is a different category of performance entirely.
The response from the ski establishment was to ban it. Racing 739™ was prohibited from Olympic competition, World Cup racing, and other sanctioned events.
That ban is the most remarkable performance endorsement in ski wax history. No marketing campaign, no sponsored athlete, no laboratory test result communicates what a competition ban communicates: this wax was too fast to be allowed.
The WhiteGold™ Olympic Record
While Racing 739™ was banned from official competition, Hertel's WhiteGold™ formula found its way to the Olympic level through a different path: snowboarding.
Burton Snowboards' elite competition team — including Craig Kelly, Mike Jacoby, Nora Brandon, Jeff Brushie, and Jonny Mosley — used Hertel WhiteGold™ at the Olympic and World Cup level in the late 1980s and 1990s.
WhiteGold™ contributed to gold medal performances at:
- 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics
- 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics
Two Olympics. Two gold medal performances. The same All Temperature® formula that Terry Hertel developed in his American manufacturing facility.
What Race Technicians Know
At the Olympic and World Cup level, many race technicians quietly combined Hertel products with their official sponsor wax systems. The reason was simple: the performance difference on snow was measurable, and at the Olympic level, measurable differences matter.
This is not unusual in elite sport. Athletes and technicians use what works, within the rules, regardless of what the official sponsor relationship says.
What This Means for Recreational Skiers
Racing 739™ is no longer banned — it was banned from sanctioned competition, not from recreational use. Any skier can buy it, apply it, and experience the formula that was considered too fast for Olympic racing.
For recreational skiers who want Olympic-level wax chemistry without the complexity of a race technician's kit, Hertel Super HotSauce™ delivers the same All Temperature® foundation in a format that works across all conditions without temperature selection.
The Bottom Line
Olympic skiers use wax that performs — and the documented history of Hertel wax at the Olympic level is a matter of record. Racing 739™ was banned for being too fast. WhiteGold™ contributed to Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1994. That history is available to every skier who wants it.
Shop Racing 739™ — The Olympic-Banned Race Wax → | Shop WhiteGold™ — Olympic Gold Medal Wax →