Cyrille de la Morinerie with AFP // Photo credit: Ludovic MARIN / AFP
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7:20 p.m., December 7, 2023
The Minister of Sports and Olympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra explained that the test at the Olympic surfing site in Polynesia failed because it had not “been well prepared”. The hypothesis of moving the test to towns like Lacanau in Gironde, or La Torche in Finistère, has been ruled out.
The Minister of Sports and Olympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, explained Thursday that the test which had failed at the Olympic surfing site of Teahupo’o in Polynesia had not “been well prepared” and ruled out the hypothesis of ‘a plan B to move the test. The Polynesian government decided to suspend work on the site after technical tests, filmed by environmental defense associations, during which a barge planned for the installation of a new judges’ tower broke coral.
“The test damaged pieces of coral”
The decision to suspend this work was welcomed on Wednesday by the International Surfing Federation (ISA). Questioned by a few journalists on the sidelines of a press conference on the submission of a report on French sport, the minister declared: “There was a test which was clearly not well prepared and was not could have been well managed and unfortunately damaged pieces of coral, this is obviously completely regrettable.” “The next test must be carefully prepared,” she added.
Asked about the prospect of “a plan B”, while the towns of Lacanau (Gironde) and La Torche (Finistère), rejected when the surfing site was chosen, came forward, the minister replied: “no , there is no plan B. We are on this path which is really the right one to have a new resized judges’ tower”, and which corresponds to “requests made by the locals”. In mid-November, the organizers and the Polynesian government revised their plans with a lighter tower project in order to “limit environmental damage as much as possible”.
“The talks are intensifying at the local level and we will have an exchange with the Polynesian authorities over the next week to try to get a good grip on this whole process,” she added. Asked whether she would go to Polynesia in December as she had said, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra explained that it was “not necessary” because she had been able to speak with the Polynesian president, Moetai Brotherson, when he came to Paris at the end of November. The president of the Olympic organizing committee Tony Estanguet had also indicated that he would go there, but nothing has been clarified since.