“The big part of the job was to come up with a track that was different from what we had seen, to maintain the creative approach that the Organising Committee has had since it was set up, to go a little bit outside the box,” he explained, before elaborating on the choice of this shade as reminiscent of lavender,” he told Olympics.com in April.
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“The look of the Games includes three colours for all the competition venues: blue, green and purple. We decided on this purple track with different tones: lighter for the track, darker for the service areas, and grey for the turns at the end of the bend, reminding of the ash-coloured tracks that were there 100 years ago for the Olympic Games Paris 1924.”
The purple colour, never seen before for an athletics track, has been the result of a long process.
“We had to work hard on the colours, so that they came out in the best possible tones to highlight the athletes. It’s a track, it has to be pretty, but above all it’s a stage on which the athletes are going to perform. What’s really important is that the colours and the athletes stand out,” said Blondel, a former European decathlon champion.
