“La Pista di Pietro” is an initiative that complements the project “Betty’s Garden” and aims to create new athletics tracks dedicated to the legendary athlete Pietro Mennea, using as a base surface material obtained from the recycling of end-of-life sports shoes, bicycle tyres, and inner tubes.

The wife of the Olympic champion of the 200 meters at Moscow 1980 and world record holder for 17 years, Manuela Olivieri, has joined the initiative by donating a pair of her husband’s running shoes — a symbolic gesture to show that every “Pista di Pietro” will contain a small portion of material from these iconic shoes.

In March 2015, in Rome, during the presentation of the initiative, Paolo Masini, then the Councilor for Sports and Schools of the Municipality of Rome, who came up with the idea of pairing “Il Giardino di Betty” with “Peter’s Runway”, said: “The shoes of one of the greatest champions will be the true ‘mother yeast’ present in the fibers of the material that will make up all the surfaces we will create together.“

The flooring, made by transforming worn-out sports shoes, will carry with it a part of the dream of the great athlete: to continue running.