Finally, the tiles from the track and field at this year’s Olympics: The French painted them… purple

For the first time, the Olympic routes where the athletes will compete for an Olympic honor will not have the color that the public is used to seeing (at least).

The vulcanized rubber pieces made in a factory in northern Italy were placed in the Stade de France, the national stadium that will host the athletics games.

Workers, working on their knees, meticulously unrolled each roll of rubber, placing them on the course’s couloirs and turns.

The floor will require over 1,000 such rolls, 2,000 containers of special glue and almost a month of work.

The rubber grains are of a new generation, more flexible and cohesive, while the multiple algorithms have created the optimal floor pattern that aims to reduce energy loss and thus improve the performance of athletes.

Three years ago, on the red couloirs of Tokyo, three world and 12 Olympic records were broken.

There will be more records at the Stade de France, said Alain Blodel, sports director and athletics supervisor at the Paris Games from July 26 to August 11 and the Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8.

“Early indications are that it will be a very, very good track. If we see athletes with individual records, it means that we did a good job,” said Bludel, a former Olympic decathlon champion.

But why was purple chosen?

“Purple is one of the racing colors that we have (along with) blue and green,” Bluddell explained.

Source: Kathimerini.gr