The construction project for a new tower for the judges of the Teahupoo surf competition in Tahiti “continues,” assured Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee of the Paris 2024 Olympics (Cojo), as the International Surfing Association (ISA) had proposed on Tuesday to do without this structure.
“We respect the decision that was made almost unanimously locally to continue launching these construction works,” he said during a year-end press conference at the Cojo headquarters. This reaffirmed desire comes as the ISA stated in a press release on Tuesday that it had proposed to the Polynesian government, as well as the Olympic organizers, to do away with the judging tower at the Teahupoo site and judge the competition through aerial and shoreline images.
“This option has already been recently examined and studied, and has been deemed not possible on several fronts: technically to capture images, but also in terms of safety, it raises many questions,” said Tony Estanguet. “On the beach, the judges would be physically 900m from the wave and would rely solely on screens. It’s a big challenge in terms of fair competition to ensure that the signal is of perfect quality for each surfer under the same conditions. For various reasons, this option has been ruled out. Until now, the competitions were judged from a tower.”
“We need to move forward”
“Five months from the tests, eight months from the Games, we need to move forward,” emphasized Étienne Thobois, general director of Paris 2024. The ISA’s proposal was made at a time when the Polynesian government announced that the competition would be able to be maintained at the Teahupoo site on December 10.
Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson presented a schedule of work that will result in a functional tower by May 13, a few days before the World Surf League (WSL) global tour event. He claimed to have obtained “unanimous support from all the mayors, the surfing federation (of Tahiti, NDLR) and even associations, except for one, and a surfer, who they believe represents the surfing community.”
“The project continues, it is the wish of the local actors united behind their president Moetai Brotherson,” said Tony Estanguet. “The decision was made almost unanimously and the authorities have decided that the best option was to continue with this construction project for a new tower because the old one is no longer usable for safety reasons,” he added. This tower also ensures the safety of the water and allows emergency services to intervene at any time in the event of an incident.
