Surf’s up for the 2024 Olympics. And while the vast majority of events will take place on the French mainland, there’s one sport that will have a special site of its own, nearly 10,000 miles away: surfing.
The village of Teahupo’o on the tropical island of Tahiti will serve as the location for this year’s competition. Tahiti is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is part of French Polynesia, an autonomous overseas country of the French Republic.
This is the second time surfing will make an appearance, following its debut at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s Olympic event in Tahiti.
Surfers will compete off the coast of Teahupo’o, a village on the southwestern coast of Tahiti, known globally for its powerful waves. This choice, Olympic organizers say, was in “alignment with Paris 2024’s ambition to spread the Games across France.”
The conditions for surfing are more ideal this time of year in Tahiti compared with France, said Ben Thouard, an ocean photographer who will be taking photos from the water during the competition.
“Because Tahiti is part of France and Teahupo’o is one of the most famous, heaviest waves in the world, it was a great opportunity for the Olympics to choose it to have the best venue,” he said.
Tahiti is part of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the South Pacific Ocean. The island is one of roughly 130 that make up the territory.
While this is the first time the village will host a competition at the Olympic level, Teahupo’o welcomes surfers from around the world each year to compete for the World Surf League Tahiti Pro title.
Anyone who has been brave enough to venture into the waves of Teahupo’o will tell you that surfing there is no joke. The waves, known as the heaviest and some of the deadliest in the world, can swell up to 20 feet high.
The size and the quality of the swells during the Olympics will depend on both the storms in the South Pacific and local weather, said Thouard. “It’s a mix of those two factors that needs to happen,” he said.
Storms in the South Pacific below New Zealand are what generate the swells that show up off the coast of Tahiti, according to Thouard. During the Tahitian winter – between April and October – the wind is blowing strong and the swells coming from the South Pacific are consistent, Thouard said, creating ideal surfing conditions. This hopefully will bode well for the Olympic competition which falls smack dab in the middle of the island’s winter.
The local weather – in particular the wind – could also influence how conditions shape up during the Olympics.
“The wind is very important for surfing, because it can affect the surface of the water,” said Thouard. “When it’s offshore, so it’s blowing towards the outside, it usually makes the wave cleaner, which is what we want.”
During the surfing competition, judges and coaches will be stationed on a little tower in a lagoon, Thouard said, while journalists and photographers – save Thouard who will be in the water – will be on nearby boats. Spectators will have to watch on TV as the event is closed to the public.
In Teahupo’o, waves break against a shallow coral reef over a half a mile from the shore, meaning athletes and the Olympic entourage will have to take a boat to get to the starting location.
Onshore, there will be an Olympic Village made up of modular homes, which will be repurposed as social housing after the Games conclude.
While Tahiti has been a global destination for surfers since the 1960, surfing in Polynesia stretches back hundreds – some say thousands – of years and remains “an important part of Polynesian culture, treated as an art more than a sport,” according to NOAA.
The event will take place over a four-day span sometime between July 27 and Aug. 5. The actual dates will depend on the conditions.
The competition is broken up into six different rounds, each of which consist of different heats. Surfers either advance or get eliminated during each round.
The U.S. will have a mix of veteran and novice Olympic competitors including Caroline Marks, Carissa Moore, Caity Simmers, Griffin Colapinto and John John Florence. Moore, who is used to surfing big waves as a Hawaii native, made history in 2021 when she won the inaugural gold medal in surfing during the Tokyo Games.
In total, 48 surfers from 20 countries will take to the waves. Of the four athletes representing France, two – Vahine Fierro and Kauli Vaast – are originally from French Polynesia.
