News Flash

High IQ at Beijing Olympics - feel dry, feel fresh, feel good

18 Aug '08

3 min read

At this year's summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Huntsman employee Frédéric Bianchi is serving as official judge in the discipline of athletic race walking.

Apart from this personal commitment by one of its associates, products from Huntsman's Materials & Effects division are in widespread use in and around the games – ranging from equipment and clothing to infrastructure.

Record breaker:
Originally from the Swiss town of Monthey, where Huntsman's Advanced Materials business operates one of its largest manufacturing sites, Frédéric Bianchi is now working as a pricing manager in Basel.

From age nine to 19, Frédéric was an athletic race walker, exercising with the local association in Monthey. He is a three times Swiss champion and broke a Swiss record at the age of 14.

Judging at the highest level:
After his period as an active athlete, he became a judge - progressing from national to European and then to global level. In 2007, he was selected along with six other panel judges to serve at this year's summer Games.

He will judge three competitions: two over 20 kilometers for men and women respectively; and one over 50 kilometers for men.

Following the Olympics, during 2009 he will serve as Chief Judge at the Athletic Race Walking World Championships in Berlin and also has been appointed by the European Athletics Assocation as Technical Delegate for the 2009 Race Walking European Cup in Metz.

Sports: no field left untouched:
Along with this Huntsman employee's involvement in the Olympics, substances and preparations produced by Huntsman will play an essential role in many sports.

Huntsman products are used in a wide range of equipment and sportswear as well as in numerous products for renovating buildings and maintaining other infrastructure.

Equipment: lightweight but rugged
On the equipment side, popular applications of Huntsman's “Araldite” product range comprise archery (bows and arrows), biking (carbon frames, bike forks, saddle-supporting rods, carbon soles for biker shoes), baseball bats, tennis and badminton rackets (substances and building blocks for formulations), canoeing (hull and paddles) and windsurfing (boards).

Sportswear: feel dry, feel fresh, feel good
When it comes to sportswear, applications of Huntsman's “High IQ” product range are pivotal to the performance of the individual sportsmen and women.

Big suppliers of dresses for individual athletes as well as for teams are producing their sportswear from Huntsman's base materials; and most of them are using a specific range of high-tech dyes and optical brighteners to obtain stable, vivid and and long-lasting colors.

Moisture management, freshness and temperature control as well as protection against ultraviolet rays are prominent features of sports gear featuring Huntsman's “High IQ” applications athletes' bodies are kept dry even when they are perspiring.

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