Photo: © Jerome Brouillet / AFP/File. Retrieved from france24.com
Surfers are due to catch the first waves of the Paris Olympics in nine months in Tahiti, some 15,000 kilometres (9,300 miles) from the French capital, but a plan to build a giant tower in a legendary surf spot is causing consternation.
The organisers of the 2024 Games want to erect a 14-metre (46-foot) aluminium structure in the water for judges to better assess the competition, and they have the local government on their side.
But local people on the South Pacific island, part of France’s overseas territory of French Polynesia, are less keen.
“As soon as they start breaking the coral, we’re going to have to step in,” said Milton Parker, vice-president of the Atihau association, a local heritage group.
He said he had told the government it was impossible to put up the tower in a way that avoids damage, adding: “It’s going to be a disaster.”