This is a position that risks causing a lot of noise. Tuesday, November 7, the President of French Polynesia, Moetai Brotherson, told a journalist from Agence-France-Presse that he was considering moving the surfing event of the 2024 Olympic Games to a spot other than the emblematic Teahupoo site. . A few months earlier, the new elected president, an independentist, had reiterated his wish to see the Games take place in Tahiti, “because this is where surfing was born, not elsewhere”, he then argued.
But the growing mobilization of environmentalists, surfers and residents of the village of Teahupoo against the construction of an aluminum judges’ tower, built in the water in the middle of the lagoon especially for the Olympics event, pushed Mr. Brotherson to change his opinion. According to them, the installation could degrade the seabed and harm the biodiversity of the site.
The Polynesian president, who shares these fears, rules out the use of the aluminum tower and is now considering organizing the event in Taharuu, a less renowned but easier to access site, on the west coast of Tahiti.
“It’s a beach break, equipped with all the infrastructures on land”, detailed Mr. Brotherson who, on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum, in Rarotonga (Cook Islands), recalled that this spot had already been considered. “This would have allowed us to avoid the problems we have today. At the time this was not possible. Given the issues and the protests today, perhaps we can revise this option. »
Danger to coral
The planned tower, 14 meters high, should have three floors, an air-conditioned technical room for Internet servers powered by an underwater cable, but also toilets with an evacuation system connected to a pipe. Already built, it has not yet been installed on site. The cost of the project is estimated at nearly 4.4 million euros. “I don’t see where we could get the barge through [de la foreuse] (…) without exploding coral »explained Mr. Brotherson, who recently welcomed the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and her sports deputy, Pierre Rabadan, on the sidelines of the Ile-de-France city councilor’s trip to Polynesia.
The local surfer Matahi Drollet and Vai Ara o Teahupoo, the association defending the site, are at the origin ofa petition which had gathered nearly 150,000 signatures on Wednesday morning.
For Mr. Brotherson, the only solution is to approve for the Olympic Games the wooden tower used in the competitions of the world surfing circuit in Teahupoo. The Games organizing committee (Cojop), for its part, justifies the aluminum tower project by putting forward safety reasons, the wooden tower (13.50 m) no longer being up to standard.
A technical team is working on this hypothesis and must make a decision on November 15. According to the President of French Polynesia, it will also be necessary to determine whether the deadlines for calls for tenders and compliance are tenable.
Contacted, Cojop reiterates its desire to “find a solution to be able to organize the Olympic surfing events on the Teahupoo site in the best conditions”. Reflections and studies will continue in the coming weeks, according to the organizer. “With all stakeholders, the Polynesian government in particular, Paris 2024 remains attentive to all solutions to continue improving the project. » But there is no question for Cojop of leaving the legendary Teahupoo site.
Our selection of articles on the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Find all our content on the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games:
- The question of the presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes
The International Paralympic Committee changes course and opens the door to Russian athletes
The government steps on the accelerator to close the accessibility gap
Making physical and sporting activities accessible to all with the “Inclusive Club” program
Paris 2024 opening ceremony: public authorities are leaning towards around 300,000 spectators with free access
Efforts to train private security agents should not be enough to be there for the Games
Paris 2024: the use of the army to ensure the security of sites has been planned from 2019
The organizer of the Games draws on its reserves to ensure its budget is balanced
What the State and communities finance for the Olympic and Paralympic Games
- The preparation of French athletes
In Saint-Malo, French athletics mobilizes in the final Olympic straight
Bercy anticipates 138 Olympic and Paralympic medalists
Florent Manaudou: “At the 2024 Paris Olympics, we will have good results because we are at home, but we are not a sports country”
Senators are concerned about the “risks weighing” on the delivery of certain Olympic works
Making the Seine swimmable by 2024, the immense challenge to take on before the Paris Olympics
Opening of RATP buses to competition in Paris: the spread of the timetable until the end of 2026 approved by the Senate
The Olympics will mobilize 181,000 jobs, but we still have to fill them
- Seine-Saint-Denis and the Games
Seine-Saint-Denis, at the heart of the Paralympic marathon and para-cycling
“I feel like I’m going to see a lot of things that I’ve never seen, even from the street”
- Ongoing legal investigations
Winter Games 2030 and 2034: a Paris 2024 framework targeted by a complaint
One year before the Olympics, the specter of business hovers over Paris 2024
- The Olympic Torch Relay
Against a backdrop of social tensions, the Parisian route of the torch relay revealed
- Environmental issues
Olympic flying taxis deemed too noisy and too greedy by the Environmental Authority
The difficult challenge of the “green” Olympic Games
- The societal issues that the Games highlight
The government will finance the creation of 5,000 additional sports fields by the end of 2026
In Paris, the movement of second-hand booksellers suspended from “tests”
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games accelerate the transformation of North-East Paris
- The Games are not just Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis
Communities seeking a share of the “Olympics effect” with Games preparation centers
In Espalion, on the occasion of the Olympic Games, “we want to talk about our city, make it known”
“They came to see meumeus, they will have seen athletes”, the Verdun Fair at the time of the Games