Olympics 2024: How Paris Olympics developed one of the world’s fastest tracks – using mussel shells

With a tap of his walking stick on the newly unveiled track, the legendary American long-jumper Bob Beaman signalled on Friday morning that the Olympic athletics programme was under way. An expectant 70,000 crowd were also in place and, among the watching millions around the world, we can safely assume that there was one common question: Why the purple track?

The eye-catching surface has been newly laid inside the Stade de France and, by working with a Sardinian fish farming company to incorporate seashells among its compound materials, the company Mondo claims to have merged sustainability with it fastest-ever track.

The early verdict of the athletes was also favourable. “That track is definitely quick,” said Josh Kerr, the captain of the British athletics team after winning his 1500m heat in a lively 3m 35.83s.

It might be one of the fastest tracks but it unfortunately it didn't help Zoe Hobbs enough who crashed out during the women's 100m semifinals. Photo / Getty Images

Jon Ridgeon, the chief executive of World Athletics, added: “The track is fast. Really fast. And the athletes are also coming here in sublime form. I really wouldn’t be surprised if we saw four or five world records.”

How is the Paris track different?

A modern prefabricated track essentially has an upper layer to ensure efficient water drainage and optimal foot contact above a lower layer designed to provide both cushioning and optimal energy return – or spring – to the athlete.

Manufacturer Mondo has an entire scientific research centre dedicated to the study of surfaces and biomechanics that includes a collaboration with an engineering laboratory at the University of Milan. This allows them to use machine learning to produce virtual prefabricated tracks before producing their actual prototypes.

There has also been particular focus on marrying the track surface to the evolution in carbon plated “super spikes” with specially responsive foam.

Compared with its previous Mondotrack version, which was first created for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the key innovation in Paris can be found in the geometry of a new base design that includes special elliptical air cells.

According to Mondo, these allow the track to respond “smoothly and dynamically to every step, leap, or throw” and improves both absorption – important in injury prevention – but crucially also the energy return for athletes. The previous air cells were in the shape of hexagons and there is confidence that the modified version, with its lack of sharp edges, is more efficient. The latest incarnation has been named the “Mondotrack with Ellipse impulse technology”.

The new track took two months to make at the Mondo factory in Alba, Italy, and with a weight of almost 300 tons, has a total surface of 15,570m². A team of six technicians worked from March to June earlier this year to install the track. Its estimated cost is around £2 million ($4,295,184).

Why purple?

Athletics tracks the world over are generally produced in that familiar red-brick clay colour. The blue that was most memorably evident in Berlin when Usain Bolt set his world records over 100m and 200m is also an increasingly popular alternative, including previously the Stade de France.

The organisers of Paris 2024, however, wanted something unique and, in their collaboration with World Athletics and the Olympic Broadcasting Services, settled on purple. One attraction was that purple had never been seen before – “this will allow the images of the Paris 2024 Games to be engraved in the memories of spectators, television viewers and athletes alike”, says Paris 24 – but there was also a belief that it would provide an optimal televisual experience.

After consideration of 40 different shades, two tones of purple have been employed alongside a deep grey around the top bends that is a direct nod to the asphalt track on which Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams sprinted to gold medals at the Paris 1924 Games exactly a century ago.

Zoe Hobbs during one of the women’s 100m heats. Photo / Iain McGregor / www.photosport.nz

There is a darker purple on the technical zones while the lighter purple marks out the actual competition areas around the main 400m loop and field-event runways. The wider backdrop of the Olympic-branded hoardings that frame the seats inside the Stade de France have also been designed to compliment shades of purples which were also assessed for their resistance to UV rays.

“We had to work hard on the colours, so that the shades would work best to highlight the athletes,” said Alain Blondel, the athletics manager for Paris 2024. “It has to be pretty, but above all it’s a stage on which the athletes are going to perform. What’s very important is that the colours and the athletes stand out.”

Who are Mondo?

While the aesthetic vision was important to organisers, the priority for athletes and fans is the quality of the surface and the potential to create conditions in which we might see world records. It was no surprise, then, that Paris 2024 turned to the Italian company Mondo which has trusted with laying the athletics track at every Olympic Games since 1976.

It is also the go-to choice at numerous World Championships, including in Budapest last year and the track at the London Stadium which is renowned as being among the fastest in the world and on which Keely Hodgkinson ran her scorching 800m British record two weeks ago.

Since synthetic tracks replaced the old cinder surfaces that were used up until the Tokyo Olympics exactly 60 years ago, Mondo say that 70% of all subsequent world records – totalling more than 300 – have been achieved on its prefabricated surfaces.

It also supplies the wider athletics equipment in Paris, notably the hurdles, mattresses, high jump and pole vault bars, and lane markers.

What’s with these Sardinian shellfish?

Mondo says that sustainability is also at the core of its work and has been examining how it can produce the same or better results with more climate friendly materials. A specific three-years research product has now led to a collaboration with the Sardinian mussel farming and fishing co-operate Arbora to use shellfish for a key track compound.

The shells, which are typically found in the Mediterranean Sea, are rich in calcium carbonate and frequently also used in flooring products. According to Mondo, the partnership “transforms a waste product into a resource, avoiding the extraction of calcium carbonate and the consequent environmental impacts”. It says that using the mussel shells is equivalent to offsetting the emissions of a Euro 4 diesel car which has travelled 60,000km. It also ensures a significant reduction in landfill waste.

What has been the verdict so far?

As the first competing athletes trooped through the mixed zone area following Friday’s first session, there was a repeated observation. “Fast,” they said.

Dina Asher-Smith particularly appreciated its look: “It’s a beautiful purple track – they don’t put us on slow tracks anymore.” The British sprinter had a bad night on Saturday when she failed to reach the 100m final but bounced back in the 200m heats on Sunday.

It is all no less than Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, had expected. “The track manufacturers always want a track and a Games that are faster than the one before,” said Coe. “I see no reason why that shouldn’t be the case here. It’s part of the landscape and I think it is good that people are investing and performances are improving.”

But as a former athlete himself, is it not frustrating that his own best times are being increasingly overhauled by people he would almost certainly have beaten? “I don’t think any international federation, or any civilisation, is best served by strangling technology,” he said.

Blondel, himself a former European decathlon champion, is thrilled with the final result. “The general feedback is: ‘Wow. That it is spectacular’. It feels like a jewel that we should not touch that much. But my first feeling I had from walking in was that I would love to wear spikes again and run on it.”

After disappointment at a lack of world records in the Olympic swimming pool – widely blamed on the water’s depth – the belief around the Stade de France is that we have both the athletes and the conditions for the record books to receive some updates.

Hear it as it happens with live commentary of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on GOLD SPORT & iHeartRadio, plus comprehensive coverage on Newstalk ZB.