CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With athletes hurdling headfirst down an icy track at about 80 miles per hour, Skeleton is one of the most dangerous sports in the Olympics.So athletes are particular about every piece of equipment that they use.
Including tape.
"They like it because it's very tough. It's very durable," Daniel Germain, President and Regional Manager of tesa tape's North American headquarters, said.
Germain's office is located in South Park, and is the seat for the German-based company here in the United States.
The company is an official sponsor of the USA Bobsled and Skeleton team.
"Of course it's great for our employees," Germain said. "They feel some connection to the Olympics. There's some nice pride within the company for sure."
Looking for a strong, flexible, but still aerodynamic adhesive solution, team members have been stuck on tesa tape for years to hold their sleds together, and stay on them, all while not sacrificing speed and precision.
"They were using our products. And they didn't even know about us," Germain said. "They were getting it through different channels. And we think it really started in Europe. And so legend has it, it started as they got it from someone, and then we somehow connected in and around 2010."
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For over a decade, tesa tape has committed resources, and rolls, to Team USA.Over 1,100 rolls of tesa tape have helped these sliders for over a decade.
Including now five-time Olympian Katie Uhlaender.
"It is the most reliable and fantastic sticky tape I have ever seen in my life," she said.
This particular tape is just one of many products tesa makes.
It's a high-performance, universal cloth tape that's used for many purposes including sealing pipe joints, reinforcing freight.
It's a heavily used in the automotive industry.
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"They're going in automobiles that drive away," Germain said. "And that means you have incredibly challenging specification requirements. And these products pass that with no problem."
As you can imagine, the tape is very durable in extreme conditions, like cold temperatures.
It all makes this pairing perfect.
"If you if you talk to the captain of the team, what we've heard is nothing but 'fantastic, we love this product and tesa has been great' and all that so that's gratifying," Germain said.
Contact Nick Carboni at ncarboni@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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