The surfing event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is scheduled to take place in Tahiti from July 27 to 30. French Polynesia, 15,000 kilometers from Paris, also has its Olympic village. Report from Vairao Bay, aboard theAranui 5.
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Some of the surfers who will face the legendary and formidable wave of Teahupo’o, in Tahiti, have set down their suitcases in theAranui 5. ” The cabins with balconies are reserved for athletes and the cabins without balconies will be for the staff supervising the Games. “, assures Maia Tunoa, the hotel manager of the Polynesian ship, to our correspondent in Papeete, Margaux Bede.
L’Aranui 5 is a mixed cargo ship that carries tourists and freight. With the Games, it adds a string to its bow by transforming into a “ floating hotel “, notes Captain Arnaud Pichard. TheAranui stay like this “ three weeks at anchor to welcome the athletes and serve as logistics for the Olympic Games “, specifies the captain. A relevant solution insofar as ” there is no hotel infrastructure ” on the Tahitian peninsula of Taiarapu, adds Barbara Martins-Nio, director of the Tahiti site for the organizing committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic (Cojop).
Teahupo’o, the most beautiful wave in the world
The Teahupo’o wave, considered by many surfers to be the most beautiful in the world, was made famous in 2000 thanks to a photo showing Californian Laird Hamilton in full session in a monumental tube. This spot often offers magnificent, almost translucent rollers. But as beautiful as it is, this wave remains particularly dangerous because of the shallow reef. There has been one death and many injuries, some of whom were left crippled.
Its choice as the site of the Games has raised environmental concerns for months, starting in late fall 2023, over the construction of a new tower for surfing judges that critics have accused of damaging coral in the Teahupo’o lagoon.
Surfers and locals, supported for a time by surfing legend Kelly Slater, mobilized for weeks to prevent the construction of this aluminum tower, replacing an old wooden tower that had not been up to standard for ten years. A technical test filmed in December 2023 by environmental protection associations during which coral was broken rekindled tensions. Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson, who had at one time considered moving the event, finally managed, with the organizers, to find an acceptable compromise.