Olympic Games-2024: at the France stadium the athletics track is dressed in purple

One by one, the long rolls of track straight from Piedmont in northern Italy are unpacked and carefully placed on the asphalt of a gray and silent Stade de France.

The gaze cannot be taken away from the purple floor, a first for an athletics track.

The organizers of Paris-2024 wanted to "step out of the box a little bit, have a creative approach by breaking away from the usual colors which are ocher, terracotta", explains Alain Blondel, responsible for the athletics and para events. -athletics to the Organizing Committee (Cojo).

Purple, along with green and blue, is one of the three colors associated with the Paris Games and adopted in all competition venues.

“The color highlights the athletes. The track is a stage where the athletes will perform,” assumes the former decathlete.

The athletics track is made up of two different tones, one light for the competition areas and the other dark for the service areas. A gray completes the palette to recall the cinder track of the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.

This sports covering was designed by Mondo, an Italian family business, a world reference in sports equipment, which is celebrating its 2024th Olympic Games with Paris-13.

The track, nicknamed Mondotrack EB, claims to be “much more eco-responsible” than in previous competitions.

Pounded mussel shells were used to reduce the amount of oil-bearing material on the track composed primarily of rubber.

“Apart from the color, the base under the athletes' feet will be almost the same” as in Tokyo where many records fell, rejoices Alain Blondel, who did not wish to reveal the cost of the operation.

Lighting, screen, seat

Thirteen thousand square meters of coverings must be installed, i.e. 1.000 rolls with a width of 1,50 m requiring 2.800 pots of glue... and good weather.

The Italian technicians dispatched to Saint-Denis, north of Paris, must also respect the level of flatness imposed by World Athletics, the international athletics federation.

After laying the track comes the tracing. The project is expected to last several weeks with the official handover of the keys to Cojo on June 1st.

At the Stade de France, many little hands are busy. Watering the new lawn, cleaning the seats... It's not just the athletics track that's getting a makeover.

The sports venue, inaugurated in 1998 for the Football World Cup, is getting a makeover.

Nearly 650 new LED lights were installed. The two giant screens the size of a tennis court have been changed, to which two others will be added during the competition.

“This is not an identical renovation,” explains Maria Le Corre, deputy director of works for the Stade de France consortium.

In order to optimize the events, the technical apparatuses, notably the pole vault, the triple jump and the long jump, benefit from a new layout in the stadium. And for the needs of the competition, the ground was planed, a ninth lane was added to the track and the stands were moved back around fifteen meters.

The brand new Stade de France will be visited by its first athletes on July 24 with rugby sevens. Athletics fans will wait until August 2, the start of the Olympic program for the king of the Games.