Milan cortina olympics make history as first winter games to ban toxic pfas ski waxes

The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics will mark a historic environmental milestone as the first Winter Games to completely ban fluorinated ski waxes containing PFAS—the notorious “forever chemicals” that have contaminated water supplies and human blood for decades. For over 40 years, these super-slippery waxes gave skiers and snowboarders such a dramatic speed advantage that one former racer described it as “ridiculous”—you simply couldn’t compete without them.

The problem was that these performance-enhancing waxes contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of 15,000 toxic chemicals that never break down in the environment or human body. Studies found that ski wax technicians had PFAS blood levels 25 times higher than the general population—among the highest occupational exposures ever recorded. The chemicals were also leaching from ski slopes into nearby water supplies, with Park City, Utah detecting PFAS contamination in three wells near a Nordic racing venue.

After years of mounting health and environmental concerns, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation banned fluorinated waxes in 2023. While athletes and technicians have had two seasons to adapt, the transition hasn’t been seamless. The new PFAS-free alternatives are slower and more finicky, requiring greater technical expertise and potentially widening competitive gaps between well-funded and smaller teams. Still, many athletes support the change, with Canadian cross-country skier Katherine Stewart-Jones noting, “I think it kind of is our duty as a winter sport to have some concern for the environment.” The ban demonstrates that even performance-obsessed sports can prioritize health and environmental protection over marginal competitive advantages.