The gem no one wants damaged. Photo: Screenshot
For the past few months, the local surfers of Teahupo’o in Tahiti have been publicly voicing their concerns over the proposed plans to build a new aluminum judging tower on the reef for the Paris 2024 Olympics. They created several viral videos that have gained millions of views on social media and started an online petition that has received nearly 180,000 signatures. The Olympic surfers set to compete next year have been wary to reinforce the message. Until now.
When a video surfaced online that purportedly showed a construction barge damaging the reef at Teahupo’o, Paris 2024 Olympians, including Filipe Toledo, Kanoa Igarashi, Carissa Moore, Caroline Marks, and Joao Chianca, started to make their voices heard.
Toledo, the reigning back-to-back WSL Champion commented on the Instagram post of the video with a, “Whaaaaat! No way. No No Nooooooo.” Carissa Moore commented with a heart-break emoji and, “This doesn’t seem worth it.” Moore’s USA teammate, Caroline Marks, responded to a post by Tahitian surfer Matahi Drollet regarding the new tower simply with the “thank you” emoji.
View this post on Instagram
Kanoa Igarashi took the time to post a message to his Instagram story, stating, “After seeing yesterday’s video, I’ve realized how much damage this ‘new tower’ is causing. I trusted that they would consider the local environment more. But I guess I was wrong… All for a two-day event and not much future benefits for the local community. The Olympics is meant to leave the community a better place than before the games but this action is not showing that in my opinion. I hope we can all find a solution.”
Brazilian Olympian, Joao Chianca, who is currently recovering from a near-death experience at Pipeline, also took to social media: “Surfing will never lose its principles for an Olympic event. It would never make sense for surfing being an Olympic sport going against everything that this beautiful sport always stood up for. Surfers always travelled and competed around the globe respecting Mother Nature and her rules.”
A quick browse through various Olympians’ Instagram accounts shows that they are receiving barrages of comments pressuring them to boycott the event and speak up. Noticeably absent from much of the discourse, at least online, have been the two Tahitian Olympians: Kauli Vaast and Vahine Fierro.
The athletes’ voices could become strong bargaining chips should they more strongly align with the Tahitian opposition to the new tower. Paris 2024 and the International Surfing Association have yet to release official statements following last week’s viral video of the broken coral. However, France 24 reported that the President of Tahiti, Moetai Brotherson, questioned the viability of the event at Teahupo’o if no solution could be found.
