A Mondo employee works on a section of the purple athletics track for the Paris Olympics (MARCO BERTORELLO)

Italian firm Mondo will supply this summer's Paris Olympics with a custom purple track which could be the fastest yet for athletes hunting the biggest prizes in sport.

Based in the sleepy Piedmont town of Alba which is immersed in vineyards where the grapes for the world-famous Barolo wine ripen in the sun, Mondo first made the track for the 1976 Montreal Olympics.