In Tahiti, after weeks of protests and delays, work on the site of the Olympic surfing event, in Teahupoo, has resumed. A test, with barges to access the location of the future tower where the judges will be installed during competitions, took place two days ago. If a little coral has been affected, this is not likely, according to a source familiar with the matter, to call into question the start of drilling operations for laying the foundations of this tower: these must begin in the night (here in mainland France) from Wednesday 20 to Thursday 21 December.
The timetable has been marked out, the State, which must finance half of the 4.4 million euros that the tower will cost, having very close monitoring of this file: the drilling 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 offshore structure to follow, by April 2024. While, theoretically, the drilling work should only take a month, local weather conditions could, however, impose a longer construction period, of up to three months.
The construction of this judges’ tower is contested locally by environmentalists. The latter deplore the replacement of the old wooden tower, traditionally used for surfing events at Teahupoo, but not meeting safety standards according to the Olympic Committee. It is an aluminum structure which must be put in place, requiring heavy work, which risks, in the opinion of ecologists, harming the environment.
The choice of another site is not completely ruled out
An accident that occurred on 1er December, when the barge planned for the work hit the coral while trying to reach the location planned for the tower, caused great tension. The work was stopped and an investigation into this environmental damage was opened by the Papeete public prosecutor’s office. After a long meeting on December 10 with local associations, the Polynesian president, Moetai Brotherson, however, confirmed that the surfing event would take place in Teahupoo in the summer of 2024.
Given the opposition, the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) has redefined its tower project: compared to the initial 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. This should make it possible, according to its promoters, to “reduce the drilling depth of the foundations and use a barge with a shallower draft for the work”.
The timetable defined for the work should lead to having a functional tower in May 2024. The objective is that the stage of the World Surf League world tour can serve as a test before the Games event.
The fact remains that depending on what happens in the coming weeks, the possibility that the surfing event will not take place at Teahupoo, but on another site where it must be relocated, is not completely ruled out. . This option remains open, according to someone familiar with the matter, who adds that the deadline for making such a change is early spring 2024.
The International Surfing Federation suggests doing without a tower
The International Surfing Federation (ISA) announced in a press release on Tuesday that it had sent December 9 “a proposal to the Polynesian government and the organizers of Paris 2024 to hold the Olympic surfing event in Teahupoo without building a new tower on the reef”. In this case, the ISA proposes to judge the event with “live images from land, water and drones”.
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