Pirelli and the five Circles
Friday, August 5: official opening of the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Traditionally engaged in all sport disciplines, Pirelli has always enjoyed a particularly fruitful relationship with the Olympics. Many athletes have competed using equipment made by Pirelli, several advertising have been inspired by the Olympics, a famous calendar was dedicated to the Games – and some Olympic champions were Pirelli employees. One of these – maybe the greatest of all – was London ’48 gold medallist Adolfo Consolini.
Adolfo Consolini’s gold discus
The London Olympics, 2 August 1948. With a distance of 52.23 metres, Italian athlete Adolfo Consolini won the discus throwing gold medal: he was at the pinnacle of a career which would make him one of the greatest Italian sportsmen of all times. When he was not donning the blue jersey of team Italy, “gentle giant” Consolini was training on the Pro Patria field opposite the Bicocca plant wearing the Pirelli Sports Group uniform with the stretched P emblem. Four Olympic Games, three world records, Italian record holder for 17 years, 375 competitions won in a thirty-year-long career: discus thrower Adolfo Consolini put the stamp of the stretched P on the Olympic Five Circles for ever.
Rubber at the Olympic Games in Rome
Sports and correlated events fostered the production of new rubber items and novel building materials for erecting new sports facilities. For the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Pirelli was involved in the building of the Corso Francia flyover, connecting the Flaminio bridge to the stadium area with the installation of 1200 “Cargo” neoprene rubber blocks. The floors of the Swimming Stadium at the Foro Italico and some interiors of the Palazzo dello Sport indoor arena were covered with “Miplac” flooring made by Linoleum. The large airport terminal in Rome, opened for the occasion, was equipped with 230 square metres of “Afolin” soundproofing panels and 32,585 square metres of rubber floors to welcome the world’s athletes.
The Olympic cartoons Babbut, Mammut and Figliut
The July 1964 cover of “Pivendere” – the Pirelli newsletter dedicated to retailers – showed an clumsy Olympic athlete attempting a pole vault jump which will probably end in disaster. The athlete was Babbut, the blundering caveman who with his wife Mammut and child Figliut had been appearing in the hugely popular Pirelli TV commercials for several years. All not-so-young Italians will remember the cartoon starring a quintessentially Milanese traffic warden (turned referee in the Olympics version) who at the end cautioned the three troublemakers declaring “ué cavernicoli, non siamo più all’età della pietra!” (“Ohi, cavemen, this isn’t the Stone Age any more!”) going on to explain that in modern times Pirelli has invented foam rubber and Sempione tyres with safety sidewall.
Carl Lewis’ magic rubber foot
When photographer Annie Leibowitz famously depicted him at the starting blocks of the 100 metres race in red pumps for the “Power is nothing without control” campaign in 1994, Carl Lewis was one of greatest Olympians of all times. Long jump and running were the disciplines in which King Carl won it all: four gold medals in Los Angeles ’84, two golds and one silver in Seoul ’88 and two more golds in Barcelona ’92. He would take gold medal number nine four years later, in Atlanta in ’96. Four Olympics, ten medals: Pirelli was closely linked to the Son of the Wind’s relationship with the Five Circles.
In 1997, Carl Lewis passed Pirelli’s ideal Olympic baton to the French track and field sprinter Marie-José Pérec. She continued the race started by the Son of the Wind in the commercial directed by Gerard de Thame, sprinting across glaciers and volcanoes, on water and sand, chased by frightening special-effects monsters. She ultimately escaped by jumping onto the top of the Totem Pole, the majestic stone column in Monument Valley, Utah. Once again, like Carl Lewis before her, she had wings on her feet and could rely on Pirelli treads. And Marie-José had shown the world that she really did have wings on her feet at the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992 when she took the 400 metre gold, and again in Atlanta 1996, winning the 200 and 400 metre races. So, once again in 1997, an Olympian at the pinnacle of her career reminded the world that “Power is nothing without control”.
The artist’s return to Olympia
Created by Arthur Elgort and shot in Siviglia, the 1990 calendar was a celebration of Olympia and its physicality, naturally all in female form. Track, fencing, discus and javelin throwing, archery and relay, with the Olympic flame on the highest step of the podium: the arena walls were grey and gigantic, the race was dusty. The prize, a laurel wreath. The athletes of the 1990 Pirelli calendar wore simple loincloths decorated with cryptic symbols that one may be led to believe tell the legendary story of Olympia and the Games. Unknown to most, it was the tread pattern of the Pirelli P600 tyre.
Friday, August 5: official opening of the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Traditionally engaged in all sport disciplines, Pirelli has always enjoyed a particularly fruitful relationship with the Olympics. Many athletes have competed using equipment made by Pirelli, several advertising have been inspired by the Olympics, a famous calendar was dedicated to the Games – and some Olympic champions were Pirelli employees. One of these – maybe the greatest of all – was London ’48 gold medallist Adolfo Consolini.
Adolfo Consolini’s gold discus
The London Olympics, 2 August 1948. With a distance of 52.23 metres, Italian athlete Adolfo Consolini won the discus throwing gold medal: he was at the pinnacle of a career which would make him one of the greatest Italian sportsmen of all times. When he was not donning the blue jersey of team Italy, “gentle giant” Consolini was training on the Pro Patria field opposite the Bicocca plant wearing the Pirelli Sports Group uniform with the stretched P emblem. Four Olympic Games, three world records, Italian record holder for 17 years, 375 competitions won in a thirty-year-long career: discus thrower Adolfo Consolini put the stamp of the stretched P on the Olympic Five Circles for ever.
Rubber at the Olympic Games in Rome
Sports and correlated events fostered the production of new rubber items and novel building materials for erecting new sports facilities. For the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Pirelli was involved in the building of the Corso Francia flyover, connecting the Flaminio bridge to the stadium area with the installation of 1200 “Cargo” neoprene rubber blocks. The floors of the Swimming Stadium at the Foro Italico and some interiors of the Palazzo dello Sport indoor arena were covered with “Miplac” flooring made by Linoleum. The large airport terminal in Rome, opened for the occasion, was equipped with 230 square metres of “Afolin” soundproofing panels and 32,585 square metres of rubber floors to welcome the world’s athletes.
The Olympic cartoons Babbut, Mammut and Figliut
The July 1964 cover of “Pivendere” – the Pirelli newsletter dedicated to retailers – showed an clumsy Olympic athlete attempting a pole vault jump which will probably end in disaster. The athlete was Babbut, the blundering caveman who with his wife Mammut and child Figliut had been appearing in the hugely popular Pirelli TV commercials for several years. All not-so-young Italians will remember the cartoon starring a quintessentially Milanese traffic warden (turned referee in the Olympics version) who at the end cautioned the three troublemakers declaring “ué cavernicoli, non siamo più all’età della pietra!” (“Ohi, cavemen, this isn’t the Stone Age any more!”) going on to explain that in modern times Pirelli has invented foam rubber and Sempione tyres with safety sidewall.
Carl Lewis’ magic rubber foot
When photographer Annie Leibowitz famously depicted him at the starting blocks of the 100 metres race in red pumps for the “Power is nothing without control” campaign in 1994, Carl Lewis was one of greatest Olympians of all times. Long jump and running were the disciplines in which King Carl won it all: four gold medals in Los Angeles ’84, two golds and one silver in Seoul ’88 and two more golds in Barcelona ’92. He would take gold medal number nine four years later, in Atlanta in ’96. Four Olympics, ten medals: Pirelli was closely linked to the Son of the Wind’s relationship with the Five Circles.
In 1997, Carl Lewis passed Pirelli’s ideal Olympic baton to the French track and field sprinter Marie-José Pérec. She continued the race started by the Son of the Wind in the commercial directed by Gerard de Thame, sprinting across glaciers and volcanoes, on water and sand, chased by frightening special-effects monsters. She ultimately escaped by jumping onto the top of the Totem Pole, the majestic stone column in Monument Valley, Utah. Once again, like Carl Lewis before her, she had wings on her feet and could rely on Pirelli treads. And Marie-José had shown the world that she really did have wings on her feet at the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992 when she took the 400 metre gold, and again in Atlanta 1996, winning the 200 and 400 metre races. So, once again in 1997, an Olympian at the pinnacle of her career reminded the world that “Power is nothing without control”.
The artist’s return to Olympia
Created by Arthur Elgort and shot in Siviglia, the 1990 calendar was a celebration of Olympia and its physicality, naturally all in female form. Track, fencing, discus and javelin throwing, archery and relay, with the Olympic flame on the highest step of the podium: the arena walls were grey and gigantic, the race was dusty. The prize, a laurel wreath. The athletes of the 1990 Pirelli calendar wore simple loincloths decorated with cryptic symbols that one may be led to believe tell the legendary story of Olympia and the Games. Unknown to most, it was the tread pattern of the Pirelli P600 tyre.
