Who’s Behind Paris Olympics 2024 ‘Purple’ Track? Does It Improve Track and Field Athletes’ Performances?

Paris is adding its own French flair to the Olympics with this new color choice. Ahead of the Olympics 2024, Paris is embracing purple. Departing from the traditional red-brick clay color, orange, or blue, this marks the first time in Olympic history that purple has been used for the track surface.

Apart from being designed to enhance an athlete’s performance, it’s also speculated to be a strategic move by the organizers to introduce a fresh perspective on the standard landscape. However, manufacturers assure it’s not just the color, as the track has also been improved. Let’s explore the creators of the Summer Games “Purple” track and its impact on track and field sports.

The company behind the purple tracks 

In a recent Instagram post by Paris 2024, we could see a sneak peek of the purple track for this summer’s games with the caption, “Who else than Carl Lewis to test our purple track 💜, The Stade de France is more than ready for the Athletics event this summer. Be ready, this track will be faaaast ⚡.” With a career spanning from 1979 to 1996, Lewis solidified his name as one of the greatest athletes of all time. Carl Lewis is a track and field legend with nine Olympic golds, one silver, and 10 World Championships medals (eight golds).

Ever since Montreal, 1976, to the Tokyo Games in 2021 (postponed from 2020), the Olympic committee has patronised Spazio Mondo. His year will mark the 13th time. Mondo is an Italian company founded by Edmondo Stroppiana in 1948. It specializes in rubber flooring. They are the company behind the unique purple tracks. Some features of their design include topological optimizations, optimization of track structural design, maximizing energy return, shock absorption, and traction.

Interestingly, athletes have set over 260 world records to date on Mondo Track surfaces, including those of legends Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. In Tokyo, 12 Olympic marks were also set on Mondo tracks. Their athlete-centric approach to design is why the IAAF and EAA endorse them. They have runners foremost in mind when developing any equipment. 

Will the Purple tracks at the Paris Olympics have any effect on the sprinters’ game?

The color of the track can impact the performance of short-distance runners in the 100m and 200m races. This year’s purple tracks might not affect athletes’ reaction time or cardiopulmonary functions, but blue and red tracks have shown some effects. A study suggests that red goggles improved anaerobic power for sprinters in the 100m and 200m. Blue tracks recorded maximum oxygen uptake, requiring more energy. Neither color had any effect on the 400m.

Using purple tracks might be to avoid disadvantaging color-blind athletes. The most common color blindness is red-green, where individuals can’t distinguish between these colors. Blue-yellow color blindness works similarly. However, no Olympic hopefuls like Sha’Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles, Christian Coleman, or Shericka Jackson are known to be color-blind. There is no clear link between color and exercise performance, and the study does not conclusively state any effect of color on anaerobic power. Camille Yvinec, the associate director of brand identity for the Summer Games, hopes the purple track will instantly remind people of the Paris Olympics.

Yvinec chose lavender lanes and dark violet service areas over the usual red. “We tried to really make something iconic,” Yvinec said. The Washington Post spoke with Yvinec, the track’s manufacturer, and material experts about the unique venue at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. For decades, Olympic tracks have been red to protect the rubber from UV damage. Yvinec’s team wanted something different. They considered blue, green, and purple. Blue tracks are common, and green wouldn’t contrast well with the field. They chose purple to represent the lavender fields in the South of France.

“The festival of the games is the city itself, the venues, the monuments, and so on,” Yvinec said. “We can add that with an unusual color for the track that could go well to create the visual signature and the footprint in people’s hearts and minds.” Mondo, an Italian company, has made every Olympic track since 1976. They added violet pigment to the track mix and created it in 1,168 pieces, like yoga mats. They shipped them to Paris and replaced the stadium’s blue track from March to June, almost 24 hours a day. The Olympic track cost about $2 million due to materials that help runners build momentum. “Our goal is to give athletes the best equipment,” said Stroppiana from Mondo.

Athletes praised the Mondo-made track at the Tokyo Olympics, where three world records were broken. British Virgin Islands hurdler Kyron McMaster said it felt like his “legs were just turning over. It felt like no surface was there.” The track uses air cells to absorb shock and give a small push. Jud Ready, a research engineer at Georgia Tech, called this a “trampoline effect.” “As you release your energy [into the track], it returns the energy to you,” Ready said. “When I see personal bests showing, then I’m very satisfied,” Stroppiana added.

U.S. star Noah Lyles, aiming for gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 4×100-meter relay, told The Post that the stadium and track were “made for me” because purple is his favorite color. Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke said on TikTok she “can’t wait” to run on a purple track. Malaysian sprinter Azeem Fahmi called the purple track “interesting, motivating, and exciting.” This unique track at Stade de France promises exceptional athletic performances, creating a distinctive and iconic experience for the Paris Olympics.

The purple track at Stade de France promises exceptional athletic performances

The purple tracks being laid out in Paris’ Stade de France are more than just a visual element. Alain Blondel, the sports manager for the Paris Olympics 2024, praised Mondo’s adjustments as very promising for enhancing athletes’ performance. Though he couldn’t say if the track was fast, he did say, “It’s the same track, the same base as in Tokyo, with small changes introduced,” adding, “If we see athletes with personal bests on the scoreboard, it means we did a good job. They will come into their best form, best shape of their life.”

About the eye-catching purple, Blondel said, “We liked the purple as it allowed us to move away from the usual colors.” The track is made from a new generation of granules that are more elastic and cohesive. This will ultimately reduce energy loss and go a long way in improving athletes. Though he did not say for sure any new world records would be made on it, he said something exceptional will definitely be witnessed on it. 

In Tokyo, three world records were made in men’s and women’s 400m hurdles and women’s triple jump by Karsten Warholm, Sydney McLaughlin, and Yulimar Rojas. This year Paris Olympics 2024 is expecting similarly iconic performances. One that immediately comes to mind is Noah Lyles’ attempt at beating Usain Bolt’s 100m and 200m records. The track requires manual layering of more than 1000 rolls of vulcanized rubber produced in Northern Italy. It is already being laid out. It is reported to be finished by June 1. We have to wait till the summer games begin on July 26 to know for sure if the purple track brews any special magic.