USSA EQUIPMENT
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Helmets/Eyewear
Helmets/Eyewear
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Helmets/Eyewear
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Kenwood
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Category
Accessories
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Protection
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Training devices
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Ski Metrix
180s
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One-way
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Ortema
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Sun Valley Ski Tools
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Wintersteiger
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BOSU Fitness, LLC
Skier’s Edge
Swenor
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Holmenkol
Swix Sport USA
Toko AG
ILLUSTRATION BY RAND PAUL
Taking a Bite Out of Times?
Ski racers may want their edges to bite into a high-speed turn, but the brains at Bite
Tech, in partnership with UnderArmour, have discovered that teeth-clenching turns
can take a toll on an athlete’s strength and endurance.
“As an athlete, you don’t realize how much you are clenching your teeth,” says former University of New Hampshire racer Willie Ford, who is now Bite Tech’s director of
outdoors. “At the apex of every turn, 80 to 90 percent of ski racers are clenching their
teeth. [A mouthguard] positions your jaw down and forward, which opens the air way,
takes the stress of the TMJ [Temporomandibular] joint and allows the athlete to perform
significantly better.”
Ford explains that athletes of all ages (not just teenagers) have to worry about surging
hormones: “When you are under athletic stress and you clench your teeth, you are putting stress on your TMJ joint, which then releases the hormone cortisol into your body,”
he says, calling the ArmourBite mouthguard a drug-free performance enhancer. “
Cortisol is a stress hormone so it plummets the endurance and strength of the athlete.”
Bite Tech’s list of athlete endorsers includes ski racers Lindsey Vonn and Erik Guay
along with Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and Ironman champion Chris McCormack.
“Wearing a Bite Tech mouth guard gives me the piece of mind that if I crash I will be
a lot safer and more protected,” says U.S. speed skier Alice McKennis. “Ski racing involves a lot of risk and wherever we can add extra safety and protection we should do
it, wearing a mouthguard is safer, no doubt, and I think in a few years everyone will be
wearing one.”
