Paris Olympics 2024: Legendary sprinter Carl Lewis unveils the State de France 'purple' Athletics track for the quadrennial Games

American former track and field athlete Carl Lewis recently unveiled the State de France 'purple' track which will serve as the venue for the Paris Olympics 2024. The Athletics events, which include the track and field contests, will be held at the State de France, scheduled from 1 to 11 August, 2024.

The State de France, the European country’s biggest stadium, has been renovated for the Paris Olympics and the Paris Paralympics. Inaugurated in 1998, it hosted the 1998 FIFA World Cup which the home team won.

Carl Lewis, who won 9 Olympic gold medals through his incredible Athletics career, unveiled the State de France which has been designed with a purple theme for the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024. The Paris Olympics organizers shared this news with athletics enthusiasts through their X account stating:

“Who else than Carl Lewis to unveil our purple track 💜 The Stade de France is more than ready for the Athletics event this summer. Be ready, this track will be faaaast ⚡"

Earlier, Alain Blondel, the sports manager (Athletics) for the Paris Olympics 2024 explained in an interview (via Olympics.com) the reason behind this approach to building the track, stating:

“The big part of the job was to come up with a track that was different from what we had seen, to maintain the creative approach that the Organising Committee has had since it was set up, to go a little bit outside the box.”

He further elaborated on why the color was chosen, stating:

“The look of the Games includes three colours for all the competition venues: blue, green and purple."

He added:

"We decided on this purple track with different tones: lighter for the track, darker for the service areas, and gray for the turns at the end of the bend, reminding (one) of the ash-coloured tracks that were there 100 years ago for the Olympic Games Paris 1924.”

While the stadium will host the track and field events, the race walk events, including the 20km men and women individual events and 35km mixed gender event, will be staged at the Pont d'Iéna.

The marathon running competitions for both men (August 10) and women (August 11) will begin at the Hôtel de Ville, with the events culminating at the Les Invalides.

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State de France to also host the Rugby Sevens at the Paris Olympics 2024

Team Fiji pose with their gold medals after winning the Rugby Sevens Men's Gold Medal match at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

State de France will act as a venue for the Rugby Sevens events at the Paris Olympics 2024, scheduled from July 24 to July 30.

The men’s Rugby Sevens preliminaries will begin on July 24, with the quarterfinals taking place on July 25. The semifinals, bronze medal playoff, and the finals for the men’s category will be held on July 27.

Meanwhile, the women’s Rugby Sevens preliminaries start on July 28 and the quarterfinals are set for July 29 at the Paris Olympics 2024. The Rugby Sevens will end with the women’s semifinals, bronze playoff, and gold medal match scheduled on July 30.