Bonding with the Olympics

Have you been keeping up with the Olympics? We love watching the various competitions and have really enjoyed cheering on the Americans in their quest for the gold medals.

Adhesives have been involved in the construction of many parts of the stadiums and other facilities for the Olympics, and Beijing 2008 is no exception. In fact, one major North American company –MAPEI – has had its products used in 10 Olympic facilities:

o    The National Stadium (the famous “bird’s nest”) athletics track and common areas

o    The Olympic Target-Shooting Stadium tennis courts and swimming pool

o    The National Indoor Stadium handball courts

o    The Wukesong Indoor Basketball Stadium common areas

o    The Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium badminton courts and common areas

o    The Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium handball courts

o    The Beijing Sports University training tracks

Among the company’s products used are adhesives specifically developed for the athletic tracks made of synthetic rubber flooring. The installation of this flooring requires the use of polyurethane adhesives that can adhere properly to a bitumen cement substrate. MAPEI has developed three products for this specific type of application which adhere to both the bitumen substrate and to the synthetic rubber covering and can resist tangential stress when the tracks are in use.

So the next time you’re watching the games, be sure to take a look around the facilities as well and think about all the different ways our industry helped to build Beijing 2008.