Paris 2024 chief pledges to seek out options to maintain Olympic browsing in Tahiti after coral harm
The Paris 2024 organizing committee president mentioned Thursday he nonetheless needs the browsing competitors at subsequent 12 months’s Olympics to happen in Tahiti regardless of the controversy surrounding the development of the judging tower on the web site, the place coral has been broken.
Speaking to native media Polynesie La Premiere, Tony Estanguet mentioned he’s going to pour “all (his) energy” to maintain the browsing in French Polynesia on the Tahiti web site of Teahupo’o.
Because Teahupo’o’s surf breaks offshore, the Olympic judges need to be out within the lagoon. Organizers intend to put in them and tv cameras on an aluminum tower that shall be hooked up to the reef.
That plan has sparked protests in Tahiti, with critics fearing for coral and different marine life. That criticism reached one other stage final week after coral was broken when organizers tried to check out a barge used to construct the tower within the browsing lagoon, main native authorities to halt the development.
“We need to find a solution to respect environment,” Estanguet mentioned. “As organizers, we need to adapt.”
Critics on the island have voiced fears for coral reefs, fish and different aquatic life when the tower’s foundations are drilled into the seabed and mounted on concrete. Islanders pushed for the Olympics to make use of a wood tower on current foundations which have lengthy been the setup for browsing competitions at Teahupo’o. They have collected greater than 160,000 signatures with a web based petition.
But Estanguet mentioned the outdated judging tower doesn’t meet Olympic requirements for safety causes.
“We don’t want to compromise on safety – we won’t put anyone’s safety at risk,” Estanguet mentioned.
He added that options shall be discover a method to let the barge entry the location with out damaging the coral reef.
Surfing’s governing physique ISA mentioned it “was saddened and surprised to see that a test undertaken by the French Polynesian government resulted in the coral reef at Teahupo’o being damaged.”
ISA additionally welcomed the choice to pause all additional testing and “urged intensified consultations to consider all available options.”
The French cities of Lacanau and La Torche in continental France have each proposed to host the Games’ browsing occasions if the Tahiti web site is lastly deserted. Estanguet mentioned it’s not an possibility for now.
“As a partner of the Polynesian government I want to put all my energy…. to find the best solutions so we can have the surfing events in Tahiti,” Estanguet mentioned. “We still have a bit of time to find another technical solution to have this tower installed while respecting the environment. This is the priority we all share.”
For France, the Tahitian venue will enable the host nation to focus on its lengthy historic ties to the Pacific and contain its far-off abroad territories within the Summer Games.
But the faraway Tahiti venue has additionally raised logistical and environmental questions as a result of the remainder of the Summer Games are targeted within the host metropolis, Paris, almost 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) and 10 time zones away.
