Armand Duplantis will warm up for the defence of his continental pole vault title at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships with an appearance on home soil at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm on 2 June.
"My best results always come in Stockholm… as long as the weather's okay. When I'm at the Stockholm Stadium and I'm on the track there, and we're competing at the Diamond League meet, it almost feels like I have to defend the turf.
"That just ups my game and fills me with adrenaline. It’s kind of like a mini-championship in a way," said the Swedish superstar pole vaulter with eight world records to his name, and with evident enthusiasm and anticipation when the meeting organisers confirmed his participation recently.
However, Duplantis is just one of approximately 250 athletes that will descend on the Swedish capital’s iconic Olympic Stadium for the annual extravaganza of athletics that takes place in a venue that was built more than a century ago for the 1912 Olympic Games.
What makes the stadium special in many people’s eyes is its illustrious history, with much of the original infrastructure of the stadium that was opened more than a century ago still intact.
Of course, back at the start of the last century the track that produced four world records during those Games 112 years ago was of cinder construction and is long gone.
Nowadays, the Stockholm Olympic Stadium can boast of a state-of-the-art CONIPUR Vmax track – which is also in Monaco’s Stade Louis II and Zurich’s Letzigrund Stadioum which are also stops on the Diamond League circuit later this summer – manufactured and installed by European Athletics Partner Conica. (More details about Conica can be found here.)
The Conica track in Stockholm was installed after the 2022 outdoor season had come to an end and saw the stadium closed for just 10 weeks: three weeks for the track to be ‘poured’ and another week for line marking, in addition to the pre-installation preparations which included removing the old track and repairing the asphalt base.
Two Conica Supervisors were onsite throughout the installation, which was carried out by Conica’s local partners in Sweden.
In total, no less eight lorry loads of different materials were brought to the stadium while 12 persons carried out the installation.
“One thing to note was that our installers needed to ensure that daily routine of the facility would not stop. The time frame was very tight, we knew exactly when the last event in the stadium finished and when the next event started. We couldn’t enter the stadium a day earlier and we couldn’t extend the installation a day more than agreed,” commented Conica’s Head of Global Marketing & Communication Julio Fernando Fadel.
The CONIPUR Vmax track has now been in place in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium since the end of 2022.
“Stadionklubbarna (the association of 13 athletics clubs in the Stockholm area that manage the stadium). and the stadium owners the City of Stockholm are very satisfied with the support and after-sales service from Conica after the installation of the new track,” said Stockholm Diamond League meeting director Jan Kowalski.
“This is especially important because the Stockholm Stadium is also used for other events, such as concerts. Since the track has to withstand many occasions, the service is important in order to prepare and adjust for the other events and, in the best way possible, protect the track.”
Kowalski added that he had, “always been impressed with Conica due to the track performance, sustainability, and longevity; these attributes are important to athletes who have high expectations when they attend Diamond League meetings, and a Conica track is fully able to meet their professional requirements.”
And the Stockholm Olympic Stadium track is expected to continue fulfilling these expectations well into the next decade.
“How long is the track expected to last? This always depends on how frequently the track is used and the maintenance it receives. For instance, large concerts where trucks drive over the track pose a significant challenge. However, Conica tracks for high-class stadium tracks typically last for many years, and maintain their performance and standards,” reflected Fadel.