Olympic Runners Are Fast. On Tokyo's Fast Track, They're Shattering World Records

https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/08/04/ [login to see] /olympic-runners-are-fast-on-tokyos-fast-track-theyre-shattering-world-records
Sprinters, hurdlers and other runners at the Tokyo Olympics have been crushing their previous times and in many cases setting new records for their events.

Records, as they say, are made to be broken. But are these athletes getting a boost from the track itself?

"I would say it's a pretty fast track," said American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin, minutes after she smashed her world record.

"Of all the tracks that I've run on, that track feels amazing," said Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands, who placed fourth in the men's 400-meter hurdles. "I felt like my legs were just turning over. It felt like no surface was there."

That the Tokyo track feels "fast" is no accident.

The Italian company that created it, Mondo, has been working to improve running surfaces since it built its first Olympic track for the Montreal Games in 1976.

The red and black track that Mondo constructed for the Tokyo Games is "the most technologically advanced athletic track in the world," with the goal of "taking human speeds to levels never reached before," the company said.