the surfing event will be able to be maintained at Teahupo’o announces the Polynesian president – ​​Libération

Ten days after the leader of Polynesia questioned the sustainability of the surfing events on the Tahitian site, Moetai Brotherson announced positive and decisive progress on Sunday evening.

The Polynesian president announced Sunday evening in Tahiti that the surfing event of the 2024 Olympic Games would be able to be maintained on the Teahupo’o site, for months at the heart of tensions between the authorities, the organizers of the Olympic Games and the residents.

“The solution that we managed to get adopted this evening allows the Olympics to be held here and for the World Surf League to maintain an annual stage of the world tour,” rejoiced Moetai Brotherson after a meeting with environmental associations.

Eight months before the Paris Games, the controversy continued to grow over the choice of this site and the infrastructures that the competition would require, in particular the construction of a new judges’ tower in the middle of the coral reef even if its dimensions and its ambitions were lowered in mid-November. At the beginning of December, a barge broke up pieces of coral during the first technical tests to build this new tower. For environmental defenders, it was written and it could have been worse in the future since these tests were carried out at high tide and with an empty barge, therefore lighter.

Moetai Brotherson then decided to cancel its official visit to the site scheduled for the next day and suspended the work which was to begin on December 4. The International Surfing Association (ISA) for its part organized a demonstration on December 3 against the organization of the event… 6,700 kilometers from Tahiti, in San Diego, on the Californian coast. “Don’t Concrete the Reef”, “Don’t concrete the coral reef”, could be read on their signs. At the end of October, it was the global surfing glory, Kelly Slater, who called for the development of Teahupoo to be stopped.

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