{"id":343183,"date":"2023-11-01T01:45:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T02:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=343183"},"modified":"2023-11-01T04:01:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T04:01:48","slug":"nasty-5m-olympic-replacement-for-this-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=343183","title":{"rendered":"'Nasty' $5m Olympic replacement for this tower"},"content":{"rendered":"

French Polynesia's president has extended his sympathy to Tahitian locals pushing against the plans of Paris 2024 organisers to build a huge, aluminum, environmentally unfriendly judges' tower on the reef at which surfing<\/a> will be contested at the Olympic Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moetai Brotherson, who was elected in May, also said if he was in power when the location for the surfing competition was being decided that he would have advocated for a different spot to host the tournaments, which will be held at Teahupo'o.<\/p>\n

Paris 2024 organisers are planning on replacing a wooden judges' tower with a $5 million aluminum structure that can host 30-40 people, which has sparked concerns for the marine ecosystem and the famous wave of the modest village.<\/p>\n

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They are planning to have concrete foundations drilled into the reef and have air conditioning, high-speed internet and toilets installed, despite the fact the wooden judges' tower has been used for the World Surf League's Tahiti Pro for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Not only have locals marched in a peaceful protest, a petition pushing back on the plans has been signed by more than 100,000 people.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Brotherson told\ufeff French publication L'\u00c9quipe that he had "a reaction of solidarity" to locals opposing the plans.<\/p>\n

"I have no ill feelings towards the organisers of this march and this petition," Brotherson said.<\/p>\n

"I understand their concerns. I myself am very attached to safeguarding our environmental and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

"But what I want is for us to remain at a level of rational discourse."<\/p>\n

Brotherson also said he would have "done it completely differently".<\/p>\n

"We would first have looked for all the ways to reuse what already exists and we might not have offered the same spot," he said.<\/p>\n

"When we came to power, we said that there was a much more suitable site for the Olympics, the Taharuu Beach spot in Papara [situated about a 35-minute drive away].<\/p>\n

"It is perhaps less spectacular and less mythical than Teahupo'o, but it's a beach break and it has existing infrastructure. There was no need to build anything<\/p>\n

"In terms of organisation, it was much easier.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

"And the wave seemed more suitable to us, it is more reasonable even in bad weather unlike the 'monster' Teahupo'o and it is more constant.<\/p>\n

"We were told that it was impossible to change the site otherwise it would call into question the selection of Tahiti as organiser of the surfing events."<\/p>\n

Professional Tahitian surfer Matahi Drollet has been vocal on Instagram about the controversy.<\/p>\n

"The risks are simple and nasty: destruction of the reef and a very bad impact on the marine ecosystem that could stress the whole marine life and spread what is called the ciguatera," Drollet said in a video message.<\/p>\n

"Ciguatera is a disease that poisons all the fish. Teahupo'o is a town of fishermen who eat their own fish and live off selling them.<\/p>\n

"And last but not least, it could modify or change our wave and, in the worst-case scenario, make it disappear in a few years."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Professional<\/p>\n

The surfing tournaments will be held between July 27 and 30, and Drollet says "the impact and the risk\ufeff are too important" for such a short period of competition.<\/p>\n

He also laid bare the environmental stance of Paris 2024.<\/p>\n

"I went on your website and you guys are promoting your environmental commitments. Are you guys going to respect that?\ufeff" Drollet said.<\/p>\n

"Please, share this video so we can spread the message and stop this problem."<\/p>\n

Paris 2024\ufeff has defended its plans.<\/p>\n

"It is important to note that the need to build a new tower is because the existing tower does not comply with the safety standards in force under French Polynesian law," it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

"As organisers of the event, we cannot compromise on the safety of the officials and judges who will be working on this tower.<\/p>\n

"It was this safety issue that led us to work, collectively, with the government of French Polynesia on the planning for a new tower."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French Polynesia's president has extended his sympathy to Tahitian locals pushing against the plans of Paris 2024 organisers to build a huge, aluminum, environmentally unfriendly […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343193,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343183\/revisions\/343193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/343185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}