Paris Olympics’ Purple Track Is One Of The World’s Fastest – And Has An Unexpected Ingredient

The bright purple athletics track at the Paris Olympics has fast become one of the Games’ most recognizable features (besides Muffin Man , that is) – but there’s far more to it than a pleasing appearance. Not only is it thought to be the fastest Olympic track ever, but it’s also got a surprise ingredient: shells.

It’s all part of the Paris Olympics’ plan to put sustainability at the forefront of the Games. When it comes to making the track, designers have been able to solve two problems at once.

Athletics tracks often use calcium carbonate to increase their resilience, but there’s a problem – the more traditional way of obtaining this mineral is through mining, which isn’t exactly the most environmentally friendly.

There is, however, another big source of calcium carbonate that’s currently going to waste. Every year, it’s estimated that over 10 million tons of mollusk shells – that’s things like oysters, clams, and mussels – are produced, often ending up in landfills.

Sports flooring manufacturer Mondo and fishing cooperative Nieddittas found a way to create a more sustainable solution to both issues; the latter produced and cleaned up the shells, which were then crushed up ready for Mondo to incorporate into the track.

According to a statement from Nieddittas, the new process is the “equivalent to offsetting the emissions of a Euro 4 diesel vehicle driving 60,000 km” (37,282 miles) and also stops “dozens of tons” of shells that would otherwise go to waste from building up in landfill sites.

It might’ve taken three years to perfect the pipeline, but that seems to have been worth it for a sustainable track that’s also been touted as the fastest ever seen at an Olympic Games – Mondo told the BBC that it’s 2 percent faster than that in 2020’s Tokyo Olympics.

How can one track be faster than another? Just looking at the tracks, there doesn’t seem to be much difference besides the obvious – one’s the usual terracotta color and the other is vivid purple. But as we’ve learned from the inclusion of crushed-up shells, there’s a lot more going on under the surface when it comes to athletics tracks.

Imagine running on a pavement compared to a track – it just feels different. That’s because tracks are specially designed to optimize performance, features such as honeycomb cells made out of rubber that absorb the energy of a foot slamming into them and push it back out.

Mathematical modeling that’s been going on since the last Olympics has resulted in the track’s honeycombs being swapped for elliptical shapes to speed things up – although there’s far more to succeeding in the 100-meter sprint than a decent track alone.