2023-12-07 14:11:09
By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 33 minutes ago
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra wants to maintain the surfing event of the Paris Games in Tahiti. SARAH MEYSSONNIER / REUTERS
Despite the interest of Lacanau and La Torche in hosting the surfing event of the Games, the Minister of Sports wants to keep it in Teahupo’o, where work was interrupted after breaking coral.
The Minister of Sports and Olympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, explained Thursday that the test which had failed at the Olympic surfing site of Teahupo’o in Polynesia had not “been well prepared» and ruled out the hypothesis of a plan B to move the test.
The Polynesian government decided to suspend work on the site after technical tests, filmed by environmental defense associations, during which a barge planned for the installation of a new judges’ tower broke coral.
Read alsoSurfing at the 2024 Olympics: La Torche and Lacanau ready to replace Tahiti if necessary
The decision to suspend this work was welcomed on Wednesday by the International Surfing Federation (ISA).
The test was “not well prepared”
Questioned by a few journalists on the sidelines of a press conference on the submission of a report on French sport, the minister declared: “There was a test which was clearly not well prepared and could not be conducted well and unfortunately damaged pieces of coral, this is obviously quite regrettable».
«The next test must be carefully prepared“, she added.
Asked about the perspective “of a plan B“, while the towns of Lacanau (Gironde) and La Torche (Finistère), rejected when choosing the surf site, came forward, the minister responded: “no, there is no plan B. We are on this path which is really the right one to have a new resized judges’ tower”, and which corresponds to “requests made by the locals».
In mid-November, the organizers and the Polynesian government revised their copy with a project for a lighter tower in order to “limit environmental damage as much as possible».
«Talks are intensifying at the local level and we will have an exchange with the Polynesian authorities over the next week to try to get on track with this whole process.“, she added.
Asked whether she would go to Polynesia in December as she had said, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra explained that it was “not necessary» because she was able to speak with the Polynesian president, Moetai Brotherson, when he came to Paris at the end of November.
The president of the Olympic organizing committee Tony Estanguet had also indicated that he would go there but nothing has been clarified since.
#plan #test #remains #Tahiti #OudéaCastéra