2023-12-20 16:16:44
Judging the 2024 Olympic surfing event via images taken from the shore, the sea and the air is the alternative proposal from the international surfing federation.
It was an attempt to get out of the controversy at the top. To avoid anything new on the corals in the turquoise lagoon of Teahupoo, in Tahiti, the International Surfing Federation has proposed to abandon the controversial construction of a judges’ tower and to evaluate the event with “live images from land, water and drones. A proposal immediately buried by the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (Cojo)
The idea of judging the competition via filmed images “has already been appraised and studied recently, and was not considered possible”, explained Wednesday, December 20, the president of Cojo, Tony Estanguet, in particular “for reasons of television broadcasting , because on the beach we will be 900 m from the wave. However, he explained, referees must be able to judge performances visually, and not based on the images broadcast.
“The project continues, it is the wish of the local actors united behind their president Moetai Brotherson,” added the former three-time Olympic canoe champion. “Five months from the tests, eight months from the Games, we must be able to move forward,” underlined Etienne Thobois, general director of Paris 2024.
Bay residents, environmental associations and several big names in surfing are opposed to the construction of this judges’ tower which, according to them, risks degrading the unique seabed and harming the biodiversity of the site.
After briefly suspending the work, the Polynesian government confirmed, on December 10, that the event could be maintained at Teahupoo. Moetai Brotherson then presented a schedule of works which should result in a new functional tower on May 13, the ambition and size of which had been revised downwards. The structure went from 14 to 9 tonnes, thus reducing its surface area and weight. Brotherson claimed to have obtained the “unanimous support of all the mayors, the surfing federation and even the associations, apart from one, and of a surfer, who thinks he represents the community of surfers”.
“It’s a little late to wake up”
This was aimed at Kelly Slater, who gave her support to opponents of the tower at the end of November. “It doesn’t make sense to need such a giant tower for a two-day event. Donate money to the city’s local infrastructure for the damage caused by the change in the river which caused flooding earlier this year,” the star demanded on Instagram.
“We must not wake up at the moment of the buzz,” reacted the Polynesian president after the proposal from the surfing federation: “It’s a little late to wake up.” And to continue: “They should have positioned themselves from the start by telling us: ‘We believe that we can judge from the ground’. At that point, we would have put ourselves in working order to find technical solutions.”
In his eyes, the proposal is not technically tenable. The international federation wants to “despite everything use a platform located at the level of the judges’ tower, because from the ground, it is not possible to film […] However, this platform must be 6 m above the water and men are needed on board. This therefore brings us back to the initial problem which is that of security.
At the beginning of December, during technical tests, a barge planned for the installation of the resized aluminum tower had broken coral, pushing the Polynesian government to pause the work. The test had been “poorly prepared”, then criticized the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
According to Moetai Brotherson, the tests of new lightweight barges were carried out on December 15 and “went very well”. Building this tower is “the only realistic technical option” allowing “both to meet deadlines and to operate with minimal damage to the environment”.
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