​Hi, I’m Sitka - a 15 year-old Nordic ski racer from Whitehorse, Yukon. I’m building Wax It to Win It: an AI algorithm that makes ski wax selection more accurate and efficient - for everyday skiers, and also for Team Canada at the 2026 Olympics.

 

I’ve been cross-country skiing since I learned to walk. Now I’m on the Yukon Ski Team, where we train 15-20 hours a week to be competitive – so of course we need our ski wax to give us the best possible glide – especially since races are often decided by to milliseconds. Just ask Sonjaa Schmidt – Yukon’s own 2024 Under-23 World Champion.

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Climate change is altering our snow, especially in the North. And the fastest ski wax ingredient – fluoro – just got banned because it’s terrible for human health and the environment.

 

Whether in Whitehorse or on the World Cup tour, nordic skiers can take hours to test waxes before every race. There are so many factors affecting ski glide, and hundreds of different waxes to choose from. Even Team Canada still uses trial-and-error to choose their waxes at international events - which can cost $5,000 per race weekend just in wax.

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So why not use new technology to crunch all that data, and predict the best wax for the current snow conditions?

 

This winter, I tested 13 different waxes, twice a week, with 960 total glide tests, in 20 distinct sets of snow conditions. I then received world cup wax reports from Swix, the world’s biggest wax company.

 

At the same time, I learned how to code, taking 3 online university courses, allowing me to build 4 separate algorithms that can take my data and predict the fastest wax on any day’s snow conditions. I then received world cup wax reports from Swix, the world’s biggest wax company, 

 

Then, I tested my best algorithm at the Canadian Masters Championships and the Yukon Ski Marathon, where I waxed dozens of participants' skis - including 19 total podium finishers.

 

On the world cup circuit, Wax It to Win It can help Team Canada skiers Own the Podium.