2024 Olympics: the Olympic track, an engineering masterpiece for runners

© Philip Strong/Unsplash

Olympic athletes around the world give it their all themselves since the start of the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 26. While their extraordinary performances are obviously made possible by intensive training and extraordinary brain capacities, we must not forgetthe importance of the design of the equipment that accommodates them.

As for the runners, they tread a carefully designed track (that of the Stade de France) to propel them to the top. Manufactured by the Mondo company, every detail of it has been carefully studied to maximize the speed and efficiency of athletes.

Mondo technology: a history of records

For more than half a century, the legendary Mondo tracks have been at the center of the greatest Olympic sporting feats, having seen more than 300 world records established there. The fruit of Italian know-how, these treadmills were born in Alba and shone brightly during the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, the scene of 15 broken records.

Grover Hinsdale, coach of the Yellow Jackets and three Olympic champions, is full of praise for the remarkable manufacturing quality of the equipment Mondo. “ A Mondo track is tailor-made, made in the factory in perfect conditions. From raw rubber to finished product, every square inch is the same. The other rubber tracks are cast on site, therefore sensitive to the vagaries of time. Result: corridors which are not necessarily all equal » he explains.

Their impeccable construction undoubtedly makes them exceptional athletic surfaces, good superior to other coatings designed for running.

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Installation and optimized design

L’installation of this track at the Stade de France was a real technical feat, requiring no less than 2,800 pots of glue to fix the 13,000 m2 of surface , like laying a gigantic carpet.

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Jud Ready, an engineer at the School of Materials Science and Engineering in Atlanta, points out that Mondo's continued technological advances have made it possible to design racing surfaces that are ever faster. “By changing the shape and compressibility of the rubber particles, they can adjust the energy return of the track. Since durability wasn't a major concern for the Paris track, they were able to optimize it for pure speed” he emphasizes.

The importance of energy return

The Mondo track is distinguished by an emblematic characteristic: its incredible energy return. Where an asphalt surface offers almost no bounce when a runner's foot hits it, the Mondo track acts almost like a mini-jumping pad.

When the runner's foot hits the track, the surface absorbs some of the energy from the impact and immediately releases it. This is achieved through the specific properties of the materials used, including the structure of the rubber and the way it is compressed and rebounds.

In practice, this means that when the runner's foot sinks slightly into the track surface, the absorbed energy is largely returned to the foot, creating a sort of spring effect. This phenomenon helps to propel the foot forward more quickly while requiring less effort compared to a less responsive surface. Result: The stride is much faster and more efficient, allowing the runner to maintain a high speed while using less energy for each step.

Hinsdale explains: “When you run on a hard surface like asphalt, the impact of your foot is absorbed entirely by your joints and muscles. The surface does not return any energy. On a Mondo track, it's different […]”. This energy return phenomenon provides an undeniable advantage to sprinters and long-distance runners alike, allowing them to deploy increased velocity with equivalent effort on other surfaces. Of course, the Mondo track does not work miracles on its own, it is simply a fabulous tool at the service of athletes.

• The athletics track for the 2024 Olympic Games is designed by Mondo, a very renowned company in this field.
• It is specially designed to guarantee optimal performance for athletes.
• Unlike hard surfaces, it restores the energy of movements much more efficiently.

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