MILAN, ITALY - MAPEI has contributed to the construction of many of the sports facilities in which the Olympic Games have taken place, starting with the Olympic Games in Germany in 1972, and MAPEI is present again at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. A propitious date, 8-08-08 (August 8, 2008) was selected by the Organizing Committee to bring luck to this most important sports event. The facilities, however, have not been built with a magic spell, but a strong sense of commitment and with the most advanced technologies available to support these audacious projects.

Since the early 1970s, MAPEI has supplied products and materials for the construction of swimming pools, athletic tracks, and indoor and outdoor facilities for the Olympic Games and other international sports events. The co-operation between MAPEI and Mondo, a leading supplier of the world's most prestigious athletic tracks, has been particularly important to the successful installations at various Olympic venues.

For Beijing 2008 - once again in co-operation with Mondo - MAPEI products have been used in 10 Olympic facilities:

• In Bejing -
• the National Stadium (the famous "bird's nest") athletics track and common areas
• the Olympic Target-Shooting Stadium tennis courts and swimming pool
• the National Indoor Stadium handball courts
• the Wukesong Indoor Basketball Stadium common areas
• the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium badminton courts and common areas
• the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium handball courts
• the Beijing Sports University training tracks
• In Tianjin -
• the Olympic Center Stadium athletics track
• In Shanghai -
• the Shanghai Stadium athletics track
• In Shenyang -
• the Shenyang Stadium athletics track

Among the many MAPEI products used in the huge Olympics project 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 Adesilex G12, Adesilex G19 and Adesilex G20 for this specific type of application. (Adesilex G19 and Adesilex G20 are currently sold in the United States and Canada.) These adhesives perfectly adhere to both the bitumen substrate and to the synthetic rubber covering and can resist tangential stress when the tracks are in use.