The project to build a new tower for the judges of the surfing event in Teahupoo, in Tahiti, “continues”, assured Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Cojo), on Wednesday. that the International Surfing Federation (ISA) had proposed on Tuesday to do without this structure.
“We respect the decision which was taken almost unanimously locally to continue to launch this construction work,” he said during an end-of-year press conference at Cojo headquarters. A desire reaffirmed when, in a press release on Tuesday, the ISA said it had proposed to the Polynesian government, as well as to the organizers of the Olympic Games, to do without the tower on the Teahupoo site and to judge the event via images aerial and taken from the shore and the sea.
This option “has already been appraised and studied recently, and was not considered possible, feasible on several subjects: on the technical level for producing images but also in terms of security, it raises a lot of questions”, indicated Tony Estanguet. “On the beach, the judges would be physically 900 m from the wave and therefore would rely solely on the screens. It is a big challenge in terms of sporting fairness to ensure that the signal is of perfect quality for each surfer in the same conditions. For various reasons, this is an option that has been ruled out. Until now, competitions were judged from a tower. »
“We have to be able to move forward”
“Five months from the tests, eight months from the Games, we must be able to move forward,” emphasized Étienne Thobois, general director of Paris 2024. The ISA proposal was made to the moment when the Polynesian government announced that the test would be able to be maintained on the Teahupoo site, on December 10.
Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson presented a work schedule that should result in a functional tower on May 13, a few days before the World Surf League (WSL) world tour stop. He claimed to have obtained the “unanimous support of all the mayors, the surfing federation (of Tahiti, Editor’s note) and even the associations, apart from one, and of a surfer, who thinks he represents the community of surfers “.
“The project continues, it is the wish of the local actors united behind their president Moetai Brotherson,” said Tony Estanguet. “The decision was taken almost unanimously and the authorities decided that the best option was to continue with this project of building a new tower because the old one is no longer usable for security reasons,” he said. he added. This tower also makes it possible to guarantee the safety of the body of water and to be able to call in emergency services at any time in the event of an incident. »
