PARIS — In a departure from the traditional brick-red colour, the track on which Olympic athletics champions are crowned in Paris is a vibrant purple — and athletes so far seem pretty pleased with it.
"The entire thing just kind of radiates light," said Thea LaFond, who will chase the first ever Olympic medal for Dominica when she competes in the triple jump final later on Saturday.
"It's probably really girly to be like, ah I think it's so cute, but I do — a purple track, how, like, fabulous!"
Camille Yvinec, director of brand identity for Paris 2024, said her teams had worked on the colour palette for two years.
Ultimately, they picked purple for the Stade de France track as a reference to the lavender fields of the south of France, where cities such as Nice and Marseille are hosting some Olympic events.
"We wanted to have a colour palette that was, above all, sophisticated," said Yvinec. It was a shift away from the primary colours of the Olympic rings, she added, and a break with traditional track colours.
The Rio Olympics of 2016 featured a blue athletics track, and Madrid already has a green athletics track, so Paris had to think outside the box.
"It's really beautiful," Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh said after qualifying for the final, adding that it was the first purple track she had seen in her life. "It's really cool, it's the new colour of Olympics really."
United States athlete Shamier Little embraced the purple vision by colouring her hair a matching shade.
"Purple has been one of my themes," she said after she and her relay partners broke the world record in the 4x400 metres. "Going into this, I had this vision. I found a barber, I just asked him to bring together my vision and he did perfectly."
Sportswear brands such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma have also prepared for purple, producing shoes in lurid orange and yellow hues to clash with the track.
Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei, who won gold in the 10,000 metres on Friday, was among the athletes wearing fluorescent orange spikes that popped against the purple, ensuring maximum visibility, in the stadium and on television, for the latest "supershoe" technologies.
Gymnasts in Paris have also praised the pastel colour scheme of the Bercy Arena where they compete, saying the pale green tones of equipment such as the pommel horse were calming.
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