Cross-country skiing can seem to viewers on TV like a long slog along a snowy course. But the athletes taking on the grueling sport know there’s always a finish line they have to reach.
With new technology from Proskida, those cross-country skiers will also know how to get to that finish line most efficiently — while also analyzing their performance for the next race. Proskida, which makes performance-tracking ski pole grips, has been picked up already by Swiss-Ski, Cross Country Canada, and the Norwegian Olympic Federation, the company announced last week.
The pole grips can be used and moved easily between ski poles and can quantify sub-technique choices, effort, force, and performance, according to Proskida. Pairing with a mobile app and a cloud-based analysis service, the pole grips can measure performance in an instant and can account for changes over a period of time. Coaches using the service can track and compare different athletes in near real-time.
“Ensuring coaches and athletes have every opportunity to track and analyze data, and improve their performance is a priority for the teams, it’s how they can develop and build Olympians and champions,” Proskida co-founder Alastair Smith said in a statement. “That’s how we know this technology is what this sport needs, coaches and athletes need data and we deliver that. Any advantage can be the difference in taking home a medal.”
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Swiss-Ski recently implemented the tech on the course at the International Ski Federation Nordic Junior and Under-23 World Championships, according to Proskida. The company also expects a limited rollout of the technology to be available next winter.
“This is a huge milestone for us. Product development takes time and there will be adjustments made during this testing phase,” Smith added. “Cross-country skiing is the last endurance sport to use performance measurement technology. The fact that our tool is being tested and demoed by national ski teams and a national Olympic federation, tells us they are looking for every advantage and Proskida is leading the way. Communication with the teams currently using the system will be crucial to making improvements as the company moves forward.”
The Whitehorse, Canada-based Proskida — the company won Startup Canada North’s 2017 Innovation award — anticipates its technology being used by athletes and national ski organizations in preparation for 2022’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.