The Paris Olympics wanted a fast track and got it. This is how it was done.

The Stade de France track for the 2024 Paris Olympics had two requirements: it had to be purple and it had to be fast.

The colour was meant to create a unique stage for athletes to perform on, in keeping with the Parisian style. Following in the footsteps of the Rio 2016 Olympics, the track was a lighter shade than the usual red, and for the first time, it was navy instead of red.

Making it faster isn’t as simple as a design choice. In fact, ‘fast track’ has become the most cliche of track and field idioms. No host city would ask for a slow track, right?

But Paris ~was Fast: Seven Olympic records and three world records in track and field were set at these Games, excluding the world’s best decathlon and field events (hammer throw, shot put) that do not use a runway or track.

In total, the number of Olympic/World Records has trended upward in recent Games: 5 in London (2012), 6 in Rio, 10 in Tokyo (2020), and again in Paris. It is an oversimplification to say that athletes are getting bigger, faster, and stronger. Humans are also getting smarter and more skilled.

It’s not just the records that were set in Paris that are important, but how they were set. Thirteen men ran faster than Kenenisa Bekele’s 2008 Olympic record of 27:01 in the 10,000m, with Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei winning in 26:43.

Thirteen men raced to match Kenenisa Bekele’s 10,000m Olympic record (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Four men broke Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s Olympic record in the 1500m in Tokyo, including Ingebrigtsen, but he did not win a medal. Four women broke Faith Kipyegon’s Olympic record in the 1500m, also in Tokyo, with Kipyegon winning in 3:51.

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The women’s 400m final was the fastest ever, with all nine athletes qualifying in under 50 seconds. The men’s 100m final was the most difficult to qualify for in Olympic history, with no semifinal finish in the top 10 seconds ever without a guaranteed spot.

The final was the deepest ever, the only time in a windy race that all nine athletes were within 10 seconds of each other, and the smallest gap between first and eighth in a world final: 0.12 seconds between Noah Lyles’ gold and Oblique Seville’s.

Likewise, the men’s 800m final was the first time four men ran under 1 minute 42 seconds in the same event, an Olympic record that remains unbroken.

The 100m final is the only time in a wind-legal race that all nine men finished under 10 seconds (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Maurizio Stroppiana is the vice president of Mondo, an Italian company that produces synthetic running tracks. Mondo first built the track for the Moscow Olympics in 1980, 12 years and three Olympics after the first one was introduced in Mexico City in 1968. Mondo has manufactured every track since Barcelona 1992.

“The Mondo track is known as the fastest track in the world, holding over 300 records to date and over 70 percent of all current records,” Stropiana said.

If you think those numbers mean Mondo has cracked the science of building fast tracks, well, they have, but the science is less perfect than you might expect. Stroppiana says Mondo’s tracks are made of “vulcanized rubber.”

When the 1924 Olympics were held in Paris, it was on a cinder track. “It was like a muddy water,” Stropiana explains. “So it was more like running on a field than on a 400m (synthetic) track, except it was dirty.”

‘Fast track’ is a bit of a misnomer. Whether the athlete is fast (or not), it’s important to make the track efficient. “We’re trying to minimize the energy that’s being lost. The track compresses (when the foot hits the track) and that energy is returned in the most efficient way possible, but some of it is definitely lost,” Stropiana says.

The 1968 Mexico City Olympics were the first Olympics to use a synthetic track (AFP via Getty Images)

When athletes run, they generate about three times their body weight in vertical force. How much of that is converted into horizontal force (forward force) depends on “braking and propulsion,” says Stropiana.

Mondo implemented “elliptical air cells within the track’s base layer,” and found that this delivered two benefits: a 2.6% increase in net horizontal energy return and a 1.9% improvement in shock absorption.

While the goal is to maximize performance while protecting the athlete, these are interrelated. “The track has to provide a certain level of comfort and cushioning,” Stropiana says.

He explains that the determining factor in maximum energy return is “the type of material, the elasticity of the material. We have these aerosols on the track floor. That helps with the cushioning effect and the way that energy is returned as equally as possible.”

“What we noticed on the previous track (Tokyo) was that depending on where the athlete put their foot, they would get different results. We modified the shape to provide a more uniform response and increased the recessed areas of the track,” says Stropiana.

“This makes the track better because you won’t feel any difference. The elastic response is exactly the same across the entire track, so the athlete’s rhythm is maintained.”

If it sounds simple and intuitive, it isn’t. “It took us about two years to fine-tune this new solution,” says Stroppiana. “We developed this mathematical model at the University of Milan.” This allows us to run simulations and test new combinations more quickly. The four-year Olympic cycle provides the ideal amount of time to prepare.

Cleaning the Tokyo 2021 Olympic track (Antonin Thullier/AFP via Getty Images)

One of the myths Stropiana wants to debunk is the hardness of the track. “The story started in the 1996 (Atlanta) Olympics because there were some great times,” he says. “They started saying, ‘Yeah, it’s fast, it’s fast because it’s hard.’ And we haven’t been able to change that view since then.”

How difficult is the Paris track? “It’s softer than before,” Stropiana said. “We realized that making the track harder is not a good solution. And (it) doesn’t necessarily lead to faster times. In fact, it can actually lead to injuries. So we’ve changed it over the last six or seven years.”

They use lower carbon production methods than before and use more sustainable materials, including calcium carbonate extracted from mussel shells.

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t come cheap. Stropiana puts the price of the Paris track at “between two and three million,” explaining that the top composite part is “only 14mm thick. It’s pretty thin.” He says the track tends to last about 15 years before needing replacement or a relay.

Mondo created Rio’s blue track for the 2016 Olympics (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Decades of academic research have detailed the effects of altitude (positive for sprints due to reduced air resistance, negative for long-distance runs due to reduced oxygen) and wind.

The 1968 Olympics had the added impact of being the highest-altitude Summer Olympics ever held, at over 2,000 m (7,000 ft). Short-distance and jumping records were shattered. Of the 12 short-distance events, only the women’s 400 m did not see an Olympic or world record, but the long-distance races were slow.

Sprint performances over 1,000m are not legal and are not considered ‘altitude aided’, and a maximum of 2m of follow-up wind is the limit for legal sprint performance due to wind.

A good track means an optimal location for (legal) records. The Stade de France is located in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, less than 50 metres above sea level. Stropiana says the stadium creates a “microclimate” to “provide more favourable (performance) conditions”.

“The stadium’s architecture, including its oval shape and partially covered roof, helps reduce wind interference. The seating arrangements and height of the stands help protect the track,” he explains.

The upcoming Olympics, to be held in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in Australia in 2032, will both be held in coastal cities.

The Stade de France’s ‘microclimate’ offers favourable conditions in a short space of time (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

For Stropiana, the future of trackmaking lies in Mondo’s collaborations with shoe/spike brands, which are notoriously “secretive about their knowledge.” There’s now a move toward open innovation, which means collaborating within the industry, but not with competing brands.

“I think the next evolution of track surfaces is to adapt to these different (field) applications,” Stropiana says. “This is an area of ​​improvement for all runways.”

He said Mondo has collaborated with Adidas, Nike, ASICS, ON, Puma and more, and collaborated with Puma for its Paris collection.

“Before Tokyo, we worked with Asics because they gave us insight. We set up a track in their lab and they tested different types, different solutions to see what would work best.

“They’re evaluating themselves and trying to make sure the (track/spike) interaction is as good as it can be, and they’re concerned about how the spike is going to grip the surface, which is very important.”

Different events require different length spikes. Stroppiana says 400m spikes have “different characteristics on the right side” to help with flexion running (the outside of the foot hits the track first when landing, and athletes turn to the left).

There is a trade-off to be made. “You want to minimize friction while still ensuring adequate traction,” says Mondo. “So if the spikes penetrate the surface too much, it slows down the athlete,” says Stropiana. “That’s one of the characteristics of the top wear layer. It has to be strong against the spikes.”

The exceptions are pole vaulting and javelin throwing, where the athletes move with so much force that the spikes must penetrate the surface to avoid injury.

“If you look closely at the javelin runway in Paris, the last part is a little different in color from the track,” says Stropiana. “Why? Because that part was specifically designed for javelin throwers. We worked with the German and Finnish teams to test different solutions.” He says, “We wanted a runway with more spike resistance and better grip.”

“Generally, the track has to be the same. You can’t have different properties in different areas. But for the javelin, they (World Athletics) have embraced that change.” It worked. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem threw 92.97m, breaking the Olympic record by more than 2.5m to win Pakistan’s first track and field gold.

Stropiana is optimistic about a future with more adjustments. “For long distances, we can create a specially designed section,” he says, suggesting an inside lane. “In fact, we have built several tracks like this, tracks with a different elastic response, just for training, not competition.”

There is no doubt that the LA track will be much more efficient in 2028. Mondo has four years to test and retest new combinations and spike brands. The big question that remains is what color will it be?

(Above photo: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)