At the 2024 Olympic Games, the surfing competitions are to be held off Tahiti. There is local resistance to building a tower in the sea for the jury and TV teams. But the organizers are primarily focusing on spectacular images.
The summer Olympic Games in Paris will be the first real post-Corona Games: free of any pandemic restrictions for athletes, fans and media representatives. The host city Paris is putting on the big stage: the opening ceremony, with the traditional march of the nations, is planned as a boat parade on the Seine. Tennis takes place in the famous stadium of Roland Garros.
Teahupo’o – mythical place in the surfing scene
The French organizers have gone one better for the surfing competitions: They are to take place in Teahupo’o on Tahiti, around 16,000 kilometers from Paris; the island is part of French Polynesia. France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera raved about a “magical place“, which makes the games even more spectacular.
Teahupo’o is a particularly in the Big wave-Scene revered, almost mythical place. Famous for its monster waves, which can travel over several thousand kilometers of sea, unstopped by any land mass, until they crash against a large reef on Tahiti’s coast. The spot was only developed in the 1990s, partly because of the dangerous conditions. The first towers that were put into the water there for professional surfing events were simply washed away by the meter-high waves.
Construction project threatens coral reef – and the surf spot
For the Olympic surfing competitions in the summer, a new, 14 meter high, nine tonne aluminum tower is to be built, which will house the judging jury and also transmission technology. But the Polynesian regional government stopped construction at the beginning of December after a barge that was supposed to prepare the foundation for the tower’s construction damaged parts of the coral reef. Destruction of protected areas due to Olympic construction work – the Olympic project in the surfer’s paradise became a PR disaster.
Coral reefs are fundamentally extremely dynamic, vulnerable ecosystems that are already severely threatened by ocean warming, says Sebastian Ferse from the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research. Direct interventions through construction projects, including in adjacent areas or on the coast, are very damaging to the ecological balance, explains Ferse.
This changes the growth dynamics of the corals and, in the worst case, they die – with far-reaching consequences, including for the surf spot off Tahiti: “If the reef is damaged or takes on a different form, for example due to construction activities, then this can lead to the character of this wave being lost sooner or later. The very thing that is the magic of this place, and what actually drew the organizers there, is threatened by this one event.“
Population “not involved” from the start
There was resistance from the local population even before the accident with the barge: Citizens’ associations and environmental initiatives also feared damage to the sensitive ecosystem as a result of the gigantic construction project, which, among other things, involves drilling concrete slabs into the seabed and laying underwater cables – at a cost of almost four and a half million Euro.
The people of Tahiti were not involved in the process from the beginning, he said Astrid Drollet from the environmental protection organization “Vai Ara O Teahupo’o” on Deutschlandfunk. “Nobody told us about the pros and cons.” Drollet’s organization initiated an online petition against the surfing competitions on Teahupo’o, which has so far been signed by almost 250,000 people.
The protest movement received support from the surfing scene, including many professionals with Polynesian origins. Also mega stars like Kelly Slater spoke out against the construction of a new tower. “It doesn’t make sense to ask for such a huge tower for a two day event“, announced the surfing legend to his millions of followers.
Olympic organizers reject Alternative plans
In view of the resistance, the Olympic organizers announced that the tower should now be built as a slimmed-down, lighter version. The environmental impact should “as low as possible“, it said in a statement from Paris. However, details of the new plans have not yet been made public.
The International Surfing Association, as the Olympic trade association also responsible for technical questions relating to the competitions, presented the Olympic organizers with a detailed alternative concept to the controversial tower construction after construction was halted in December. This included a scoring tower on the beach, and the images from the competition were also to be sent to the jury via camera drones.
Tower in the sea is being built – also because of the TV pictures
However, this plan was rejected by the organizers in Paris. Live cameras, although used in international competitions in the past, do not sufficiently meet the requirements for competition evaluation, security monitoring and TV transmission, the organizing committee said.
The latter in particular is probably the reason why the organizers don’t want to use the wooden tower that is used every year World Series event will be temporarily erected in Teahupo’o. The anchoring for this already exists on the seabed. But the construction doesn’t offer enough space for the around 40 people who are supposed to fit there: in addition to the jury, the camera teams from the “Olympic Broadcasting Services“, which are intended to provide a maximum of spectacular images of the surfing thrill off Tahiti.
Clock is ticking – gaming test event on May 13th
Sports Minister Oudéa-Castéra reiterated in December that there was no alternative to Teahupo’o as a location for the Olympic surfing competitions. In addition, as is often the case with Olympic construction projects, the clock is ticking: everything should be ready by May 13th at the latest, before a test event for the games. The construction period falls exactly into that “most intense storm season and severe weather season”says marine biologist Ferse. The damage to the reef by the barge in December was also caused by a storm. “I think it’s daring to build something at this sensitive time.”said heel.
Polynesia’s Prime Minister Moetai Robertson told AFP that the dispute over the tower’s construction was over and that a common solution had been found with the environmental associations. After the damage to the coral reef, Robertson fundamentally questioned Teahupo’o as a venue. But in the end the prospect of getting a piece of the Olympic glory was probably too tempting.