Olympics
Athletics: Pretty purple track proves popular in 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 4×400 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.
-Reuters
Athlete Familiarisation – Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France – August 01, 2024. General view of athletes using the running track inside the stadium ahead of the athletics. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczyns
Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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Ukraine’s skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Thursday over the use of a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, the International Olympic Committee said.
He was informed of his disqualification after a meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry early in the morning at the sliding venue.
His team said they would appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Coventry told reporters she had wanted to meet the athlete face to face in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.
“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters.
“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory.
“The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution” she added, choking up.
“I really wanted to see him race, It’s been an emotional morning.”
The IOC offered him the opportunity to display his “helmet of remembrance” depicting 24 images of dead compatriots before the start and after the end of Thursday’s race at the Games, while also allowing him to wear a black armband while competing.
“I am disqualified from the race. I will not get my Olympic moment,” said Heraskevych.
The skeleton competition starts later on Thursday.
-Reuters
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