Until Rio he was the poster boy of the Olympics, the strongest attraction. Today he continues to be the most important testimonial of the Games, not by chance chosen by the new ones companies that have entered the Top group (an acronym that introduces The Olympic Partners, the partners of the Olympic Committee) such as Allianz. Now that the athletics competitions have begun, Usain Bolt himself, the king of speed, risks becoming an embarrassment for his sponsor, because he has unveiled the latest intersection of interests between the companies that supply the products to athletes, the shoes principally, and the leaders of the world federation.
By a rule that some interpret as old, the shoes used on the track should all be on the market: thus, in theory, competitive equality is guaranteed. In the months before the Games, however, the companies began a selective distribution to some athletes of shoes which, inspired by models already used on the street, have a “heel”, with many greetings to the limit set of 25 mm in height for the sole. What is it for? To increase the thrust. The advantages: there are those who calculate them in 8-10 cents on 100 meters. With what result: records defined at the time of Bolt almost extraterrestrial again approachable, shoes in the showcase in short to increase sales.
Fortunately, there is Italy. If there is a whole world around the races, even with the less-Olympic declinations described above, there is only one World on the track that can trample everyone, champions and brocchi. Mondo is a company founded in 1948 in the province of Cuneo by Edmondo Stroppiana: his nickname has become the name of a successful case history. At the beginning, the flagship product was the ball for elastic ball games, a typical sport of Lower Piedmont, today they are the tracks of the Olympic stadiums and stadiums where the most important are played athletics events and more (www.mondoworldwide.com), an activity that also passes through collaborations with Vodafone (application of IOT systems for the slopes), Nike (tracks made with recycled materials) e Asics (the tests for the Tokyo slopes).
Lights on athletics
These days for the first time they will be light up both the runway and the equipment, even the uprights that support the rods of the jumps, as if the lanes were also athletes. All without confusing content and container: only to improve the involvement of spectators at home (the effect on the audience present at the stadium will obviously have to be measured on another occasion). An example of what can be achieved thanks to integrated Led technology chosen by Mondo with full membership of the World Athletics Federation: lane markers will be able to display animations and videos, while Bolt, to get back to him, had to do everything himself, and he was great at getting people’s attention, before, during and after each run. We returned to the Jamaican champion precisely because of his complaints: he has never been favored or disadvantaged by the tracks on which he raced. Mondotrack was built for the first time for the Beijing Games, those of Bolt’s first gold medal, and then continuously re-proposed: the track is made with raw materials that have up to a 40% recycled materials without contaminants and 10% renewable materials, to guarantee a final result that is as sustainable as possible and with low environmental impact.
Underneath all the shoes, of all the athletes, there is a short a world rich in technology but generous with everyone, and not just with the fastest.
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