Aussie Olympians cannot believe it when they learn about a VERY surprising detail about the athletics track for the Paris Games

Australian athletes have revealed their shock at the very unusual colour the athletics track has been painted for the Paris Olympic Games.

The 2024 Games get underway in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday, before the official opening ceremony begins on Friday.

The Stade de France, where many of the track and field events will be taking place, has a purple athletics track in a first for the Olympics.

The unusual colour, which has never been used for a track before, caught several Aussie athletes off guard when they found out about it in a recent video.

'I had not heard the track in Paris was going to be purple,' said hurdler Michelle Jenneke in a clip posted by the Aussie Olympic team.

'That is pretty cool - I'm not sure I've competed on a purple track before, so I can't wait.'

Middle-distance runner Peter Bol was also blindsided by the news.

'That's the first I've heard that,' he smiled.

'You know, regardless of the colour, you've still gotta run 800 metres.'

Teen star Claudia Hollingsworth said she was keen to try it out.

'That's so exciting, I can't wait,' she laughed.

Alain Blondel, sports manager in charge of athletics for the Paris Games, explained why the city went with the colour purple for the track which, in a radical departure for the Games, will not feature in the opening ceremony, which is centred around the River Seine.

'The big part of the job was to come up with a track that was different from what we had seen, to maintain the creative approach that the Organising Committee has had since it was set up, to go a little bit outside the box,' he explained.

'The look of the Games includes three colours for all the competition venues: blue, green and purple. We decided on this purple track with different tones: lighter for the track, darker for the service areas, and grey for the turns at the end of the bend, reminding of the ash-coloured tracks that were there 100 years ago for the Olympic Games Paris 1924.'

The purple colour was also chosen because it would help emphasise the competitors.

'We had to work hard on the colours, so that they came out in the best possible tones to highlight the athletes,' he said.

'It's a track, it has to be pretty, but above all it's a stage on which the athletes are going to perform. 

'What's really important is that the colours and the athletes stand out.'