Will Paris 2024 ride out the surfing saga in Tahiti?
The Olympic Games are scheduled to start in exactly three months’ time in Paris. Athlete contingents from virtually all over the world will be descending to the French capital this summer.
But events for one sporting discipline won’t be taking place in France, not even elsewhere in Europe. Olympic events for surfing this year will be organised more than 15,000 kilometres away in the French overseas territory of Tahiti.
Tahiti chosen for Olympic surfing competition at 2024 Paris Games https://t.co/A0VjjgzEfJ pic.twitter.com/q2b8xpophA
— NBC OlympicTalk (@NBCOlympicTalk) December 12, 2019
Tahiti is a haven for surfers from all around the world, but Paris 2024’s decision to delegate surfing events to the French Polynesian territory has faced backlash from environmentalists and Tahitian locals alike.
And with less than a hundred days left until surfing begins in the Tahitian village of Teahupo’o, Sports Gazette takes a look at what all has happened in the surfing saga leading up to Paris 2024.
Tahiti’s ecosystem buckling under pressure from Paris 2024
Teahupo’o, and by extension Tahiti, fosters a culture that places a lot of value on nature and how it helps humans – providing them with resources to sustain life on a remote island in the South Pacific ocean.
Fast forward to 2024, and one can see that the decision to organise surfing events in Tahiti is already causing mother nature unprecedented trouble – in December 2023, a barge damaged sections of coral reefs during construction work.
A painting by William Hodge depicting Tahiti during James Cook’s second voyage in the Pacific Ocean (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
A video showing the damage spread on social media, provoking outcry among local residents and environmentalists. If the reef were to lose its shape due to damage, then the world-famous waves will also be adversely affected.
Peva Levy, a member of the local environmental organisation Vai Ara O Teahupo’o, decried the wounds inflicted on Teahupo’o’s natural ecosystem while speaking to the Associated Press.
“If it does crack and break off (the reef), there will be no more wave over here, it will be finished for us,” Levy said.
Environmentalists and local fishers harbour fears that drilling into the coral reef will result in microscopic algae – ciguatera – infecting fish, which will, in turn, make those who eat those fish sick.
Mormon Maitei, who earns money from spearfishing in Teahupo’o, said: “The lagoon is our refrigerator, it’s where we get our dinner from.”
Paris 2024 Organising Committee in damage control mode
The Paris 2024 Organising Committee has taken steps to better involve locals in the planning and execution of the surfing events, and infrastructural plans are in place to minimise construction.
The size of an aluminium judging tower has been scaled back, 98% of Olympic housing will be within locals’ homes, and athletes will stay in a cruise ship anchored nearby. Olympic organisers have also expressed their concern over the apparent destruction of the natural ecosystem.
The Paris 2024 Organising Committee has gone into damage control mode for the surfing events (Image source: Getty Images)
“Tahitians have this special relationship with nature, with their lands, and it was like a bomb for us,” said Barbara Martins-Nio, a senior event manager for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee, while speaking to the Associated Press.
Cindy Otcenasek, the president of Via Ara o Teahupo’o, referred to the coral reefs’ damage as deeply hurtful to both the local community and Polynesian culture.
“In Polynesian culture, gods are present everywhere, in the coral, in the ocean. The ocean is considered to be the most sacred temple.
“The fish live around the corals so if we break a coral, we break a home,” she said.
Economics trumps (most) environmental concerns
But, then again when it comes to financial matters and potential monetary gains can be made, the environment and nature are relegated as secondary concerns. Something similar along these lines is also happening in Teahupo’o.
A section of the populace in the Tahitian village see the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as an opportunity which will benefit them through the perceived economic boon of visitors pouring in between July 27 and August 4.
A surfer navigating through and riding on a wave (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Gregory Parker, born and brought up in Teahupo’o, owns a sizeable amount of properties in the Tahitian village and is happily willing to rent them out for the duration of the surfing events in the village.
While speaking to the Associated Press, he didn’t rule out the possibility of even having to live in a tent for the two weeks that the Games are on.
“I will try to live at my daughter’s house during the Games. If she also rents out her house, I have a tent. It’s not hard for two weeks, and given all the money I will make, it’s worth it.”
