If the International Surfing Federation (ISA) proposed, Tuesday, December 19, to do without the construction of an aluminum tower for the judges of the Olympic surfing event at the Teahupoo site, in Tahiti, Tony Estanguet announced, on Wednesday, an end of inadmissibility. “The project continues, this is the wish of the local actors united behind their president, Moetai Brotherson. We respect this decision”declared the president of the Paris 2024 Games Organizing Committee (Cojop).
“ The ISA changed their mind very recently, but they have been in the loop of all the decisions”he added, while warning that ” the last word “ comes back anyway “to the IOC [Comité international olympique] and to the Organizing Committee of the Games”.
The construction of this tower is contested locally by environmentalists. The latter deplore the replacement of the old wooden tower, traditionally used for surfing events at Teahupoo, but which would not meet safety standards, according to the IOC.
It is an aluminum structure which must be put in place, requiring work which, in the opinion of ecologists, risks harming the environment. After a long meeting (five hours), on December 10, with local associations, the Polynesian president nevertheless confirmed the construction of this new tower. He also assured that the surfing event would take place in Teahupoo in the summer of 2024.
“An option that we looked at and which was ruled out”
In its press release, published Tuesday, the ISA said it had proposed to the Polynesian government, as well as to Cojop, to judge the event through aerial images taken from the shore and the sea. “This is an option that we have looked at for some time now and which has been ruled out,” explained Mr. Estanguet, stressing that, in addition to security issues, this posed reliability problems “in matters of television broadcasting”and so “of sporting fairness if we cannot ensure that the quality of the images is the same for each surfer”.
Taking into account the opposition, Cojop has redefined its tower project: compared to the very first version, it is a model smaller in size (150 square meters, like the old wooden tower) and in mass (9 tonnes instead of 14 tonnes), which was retained. “Five months from the tests, eight months from the Games, we must be able to move forward”said Etienne Thobois, the general director of Cojop, on Wednesday.
Drilling operations for laying the foundations of the tower must begin during the night (here in mainland France) from Wednesday December 20 to Thursday December 21. These drillings and the construction of the foundations of the tower must be carried out by the end of January or the beginning of February, with the assembly of the structure at sea to follow, by April 2024. This should lead to having available a functional tower in May 2024 so that it can be tested when hosting a stage of the World Surf League.
Even if, officially, the surfing event will take place in Teahupoo, the hypothesis that it will have to be relocated has not been completely ruled out, according to someone familiar with the matter. The deadline to make such a change is early spring 2024.
Our selection of articles on the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games