Company making track, pools for Olympics has 1 goal: world records

The purple pieces of vulcanized rubber track being produced at a factory in northern Italy will be run on by the world's fastest athletes at the Paris Olympics. They have been made with one clear goal.

Records.

After three world records and 12 Olympic marks were set on the track in Tokyo three years ago, expect more records to fall at the Stade de France.

That's why Mondo, the company that has provided the track at every Summer Games since Montreal in 1976, went back to the drawing board after Tokyo.

Multiple algorithms were explored before finding a more optimal shape and dimension for the air cells inside the track, which have been designed to minimize energy loss and enhance performance.

In other words, the innovations are meant to enable Olympians to run faster, jump higher and leap further. Kind of like the Olympic motto: "Faster, higher, stronger — together."

"The athletes will find this track to be more reactive and better suited for their competition," Maurizio Stroppiana, vice president of Mondo's sport division, said during a press tour at the company's factory in Alba, near Turin.

Produced in portions over two days this week and then rolled up for transport to France, the track will be installed at the Stade de France next week, weather permitting.

It will mark the third time that Mondo has installed a new track at the Stade de France, which hosted the athletics world championships in 2003.

"It's laid on the asphalt base and it's glued in place," Stroppiana said. "It's a fairly quick process. We're going to work 24 hours and overnight because of the limited time available and the weather."

Another novelty for Paris is the colour of the track, which will be purple for the first time at an Olympics.

"The colour