CHARLOTTE — A company with its North American headquarters in Charlotte is helping Team USA in one of the most dangerous and high-adrenaline Olympic sports.
Skeleton athletes are using tesa tape. In skeleton, athletes use a sled to shoot down an icy track headfirst at speeds of 80-90 miles per hour. Athletes use tesa tape to hold the sled’s padding in place and to help aerodynamic flow. The tape is also used on helmets to cut down on drag, and it is used to protect against sharp edges.
“It’s a dangerous sport. They, the speeds reach 80 miles an hour. It’s amazing. It’s headfirst,” Daniel Germain, tesa tape’s head for North America, said. “So they want to know the sled that they’re on is well prepared.”
In skeleton, the podium is typically decided by a matter of seconds, so every edge helps. The company says each athlete uses about six rolls of tesa tape per year on their sleds.
“It’s very exciting to see our products, even if it’s a small part, contribute to the great event that is the Olympics,” Germain said.
The company also sponsors the U.S. bobsled team. North American headquarters for tesa tape is located on Carneige Boulevard in SouthPark and has warehouses in Sparta, Novi and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
(WATCH BELOW: Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 opening ceremony: What you need to know)
©2022 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
