The controversy was intense, between Tahiti and Paris, to the point of calling the project into question. But it is now a thing of the past. Less than four months before the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympics (D – 119), the judges' tower at Teahupo'o, the site of the Olympic surfing events in French Polynesia, is up and almost ready for use .
An Australian photographer based in Tahiti, Tim McKenna, captured the first aerial images with a drone (photo above). Before posting them on his Instagram account, with this comment:
« The new tower is in place. The wave is as perfect as it has ever been. The coral suffered minimal damage after a channel was cut into the lagoon for easy access by construction boats. It will take some time to see if the Ciguatera (a disease caused by a toxin secreted by microscopic algae proliferating in polluted coral reefs) increased drastically in some fish living in this specific area of the lagoon. Meanwhile, the aluminum construction looks nice and smooth and was assembled quicker than expected. Tahiti now has a state-of-the-art judging tower for the next 20 years. It will be dismantled and rebuilt each year for surfing events, like the previous one. »
For the OCOG Paris 2024, the installation of the judges' tower sounds doubly like good news. The construction was completed without experiencing any incident or manifestation of hostility from the population. And it was completed two weeks early.
These two weeks, the local organizers will use them to put the finishing touches on the site. Christian Wang Sang, in charge of the project at the Tahitian Ministry of Youth and Sports, explained this to radio 1: the roof must now be completely installed, then it will be necessary to install the cable which will connect the land to the tower, and finally to arrange the structure (partitions, air-conditioned room for the servers, furniture, etc.).
« Everything has been revised downwards, he reminds. We have worked with the new elements to guarantee the delivery of the tower on time.” The teams mobilized on the site, on the other hand, were reinforced compared to the numbers initially planned.
The new judges' tower will be used for the first time in May for a World Surf League event, the Tahiti Pro (22 to 31), moved forward in the calendar due to the Olympics. A dress rehearsal before the Olympic competitions, the second and last in history for surfing as an additional sport. From the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, the sport will become a more permanent part of the program.
