With little less than 20 days to go until the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Mondo athletics track that has been installed in the French capital’s Stade de France has been making headlines, and for many different and exciting reasons.
Mondo has been the provider of the main stadium athletics track at every Olympic Games since 1992 as well as also being a track supplier at the previous four Olympic Games since Montreal 1976.
However, the innovative purple colour for the track – installed in March and April to replace the former Mondo athletics track at the Stade de France, which was in place for many years, with the Local Organising Committee of the Olympic Games taking possession of the stadium and the track at the start of this month – is a first at an Olympic Games.
And the colour has certainly caught the attention of the global media, and especially that of the host nation.
All the major newspapers in France, including Le Figaro, Liberation and the leading French sports daily L’Équipe, have reported in recent months on the track’s special properties and original hue.
Read the article on Figaro | Read the article on Libération | Read the article on L'Équipe
Heralded Le Parisien, adding to the air of anticipation ahead of the first day of the Paris 2024 athletics competition on 1 August.
Read the article here.
Ran the headline on olympics.org, the official website of the International Olympic Committee.
In a recent interview with the French media, Paris 2024 Athletics Events Director Alain Blondel explained the thinking behind the new colour scheme, which will be a light purple for the nine-lane track itself and a darker shade for the external areas.
Grey will also feature on the turns, the colour chosen deliberately to resemble the cinder track that featured a century ago in 1924, the last time Paris staged the Olympics.
Blondel can empathise with what the athletes themselves will want under their feet in Paris having had a successful career as a world-class multi-events exponent which included winning the 1994 European decathlon title.
Before the new track’s installation, the old Mondotrack surface that had been laid down in 2010 was completely removed. Two layers of asphalt were then laid to serve as a base for the new track.
Approximately 14,000m2 of track was laid in the Stade de France, the centrepiece of Paris 2024, requiring around 1000 rolls of MondotrackTM Ellipse Impulse and 2800 pots of specialist adhesive to be brought from the Mondo factory in Alba.
In addition, another 3000m2 of track was laid at the Stade Annex adjacent to the main stadium,
“A track must be pretty but above all it is a stage on which the athletes will perform,” added Blondel. “It is important to put the considerations about the colour to one side but, from the tests we have carried out, we realized that the track has emphatically passed all the performance tests.”
La Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy excitedly discussed the type of track on which Italian heroes Lamont Marcell Jacobs and Gianmarco Tamberi will defend their Olympic titles won three years ago in Tokyo.
“The track of dreams: purple-coloured Paris track gets ready for records, thanks to Italian magic and excellence,” commented Italy’s most widely read daily newspaper of any description, also paying tribute to Mondo’s company origins and worldwide reputation.
Jacobs and Tamberi showed they will depart for Paris with every chance of realising their ambition after earlier this month retaining their European titles on home soil in Rome, with the continental championships also held on a Mondo track.
Read the article on La Gazzetta dello Sport