The judges’ tower is seen during the Tahiti Pro surfing competition, seen as a test event for the Paris 2024 Olympics Games, at Teahupo’o beach, Tahiti, a French Polynesia island in the Pacific Ocean. AP
Next year’s Olympic surfing competition will be held in French Polynesia as planned, the regional president has said, declaring a blazing row between organisers, authorities and environmental groups to be over.
Polynesian leader Moetai Brotherson told AFP on Sunday that a meeting with environmental associations had yielded “a solution” allowing the contest to be held at Teahupo’o on the French Pacific island of Tahiti.
“The solution we managed to get adopted tonight will allow the Games to be held here,” he said.
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Debate about the suitability of having the island host the competitions has made waves for weeks, reaching a high point early this month after a construction barge used to install a new judges’ tower in the sea, supposed to reach a height of 14 metres (46 feet), broke through part of a colourful coral reef during testing.
This, critics said, was confirmation that the installation could damage the beach’s fragile corals beyond repair. A petition against the new tower has gathered over 210,000 signatures.
While criticising the testing for being “not well prepared”, France’s Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera still ruled out any relocation of Olympic surfing events, saying there was “no plan B”.
France’s Atlantic coast hosts some of Europe’s most famous surfing beaches and local officials had been hopeful of hosting the event.
When Tahiti was selected as the surfing site, dignitaries in coastal resorts in mainland France, such as Biarritz, were unimpressed –- not least because of the cost and the carbon emissions involved in putting a chunk of the Olympics in the South Pacific.
‘Biggest names in surfing’
Brotherson on Sunday presented a plan in stages for construction of the new aluminium tower which is to be completed by May 13, he said, in time for a World Surf League (WSL) event seen as a dress rehearsal for the Olympics.
During the talks with concerned parties he had won “unanimous backing from mayors, the surfing federation and even the associations, except one”, Brotherson said.
There was also an individual surfer holding out “who thinks he represents the surfing community,” Brotherson said.
That surfer, Lorenzo Avvenenti — born and raised in Tahiti — said that “the biggest names in surfing” including Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina, Felipe Toledo and Carissa Moore, had signed the petition against the new tower.
But Brotherson said they had done so “without having the right information”.
In mid-November, the organisers and the Polynesian government revised their plans in order for the new tower to be lighter to “limit environmental damage”.
The president of the Paris Olympics organising committee, Tony Estanguet, welcomed the backing for the Teahupo’o venue.
He said new tests for the tower’s installation would be run by experts with WSL experience and a new barge, and special attention “to avoiding damage to the corals”.
Tests would begin this week, and construction work could start by the end of the month, he said.
He said he was “confident” that the tower would be erected by the month of May.
The Summer Olympics’ surfing events are scheduled from 27 to 30 July.
