Why Are the Olympic Surfing Events Being Held in Tahiti?

All eyes are on Paris, where the Olympics began Friday with an elaborate opening ceremony on the Seine River. But for some athletes and spectators, this year’s Summer Games require them to travel thousands of miles away to an island in the South Pacific.

The Olympic surfing competition will take place in the waters off Teahupo’o, a tiny village on the island of Tahiti. But why?

Tahiti is part of French Polynesia, a collective of islands that operates as a semi-autonomous territory of France. French Polynesians are French citizens who have the same rights as those living on the mainland—for instance, they can vote in French elections and live in France.

As organizers were planning the 2024 games, Tahiti beat out four surfing sites in mainland France (Biarritz, Lacanau, Les Landes and La Torche) to host this year’s event. Teahupo’o has hosted several other big surfing contests, including the Pro Tahiti world championships, and had “overwhelming support” from surfers, per the Associated Press (AP).

Surfing debuted as an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Games in 2021. This year, 48 athletes from 21 countries are in Tahiti for the Games. From July 27 to August 5, they’ll surf the world-renowned Teahupo’o waves, which can reach heights of up to 22 feet. These monstrous swells are both admired and feared, even among the most accomplished surfers.

“Sometimes, it’s super playful, really fun,” says Carissa Moore, the Hawaiian surfer who took home the gold medal in Tokyo, to Conde Nast Traveler’s Megan Spurrell. “Sometimes, it has literal teeth. There are times I’m sitting on the boat shaking, because these mountains of water are folding on themselves and you’re just like, I really have to go out there?”

French surfer Johanne Defay echoed that sentiment, telling Olympics.com’s Lena Smirnova and Ash Tulloch that Teahupo’o’s waves are either “magical or terrifying.”

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When they’re not surfing, athletes are hanging out onboard their temporary home for the games, the Aranui 5. This floating Olympic Village is part cruise ship, part cargo ship. And when it’s not housing Olympians, it transports tourists and goods around the islands of French Polynesia, including the remote Marquesas Islands. (The passenger-freighter vessel even has a resident tattoo artist onboard.)

Aranui 5 was selected because the Paris Olympic committee mandates that all athletes be housed within 45 minutes of their contest venue, reports Kyle Frankel for NBC Olympics. Organizers considered a local hotel, but it’s been closed for 26 years and could not be revitalized in time for the games, per NBC Los Angeles’ Julia Elbaba.

While athletes staying in Paris are sleeping on cardboard beds in dorm-style shared rooms, competitors on the Aranui 5 will snooze soundly in real beds inside private cabins with balconies overlooking the ocean.

Athletes arrived in Tahiti last week, and they’re already hitting the water for training sessions. Locals, meanwhile, are gearing up for the influx of activity by cleaning up trash, building homemade speed bumps, decorating fences, constructing viewing platforms and painting signs, reports Victoria Milko for the AP.

At 9,765 miles from Paris, Tahiti is the most far-flung venue in this year’s Olympics. But it’s not the only off-site location: Marseille is hosting the sailing competitions, while Bordeaux, Nice, Lyon and other cities are hosting the soccer matches.

Historically, it’s not uncommon for some Olympic events to be held outside the host city, primarily for logistical reasons. For instance, when Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Games, several events were held at ski resorts in the mountains nearby, including Deer Valley Resort in Park City and Snowbasin near Ogden. Those same resorts have also been tapped to host events in 2034, when the Winter Games come to Salt Lake City once again.

When Los Angeles hosts the Summer Games in 2028, two events—softball and canoe slalom—will be held 1,300 miles away in Oklahoma City.

However, events rarely occur away from the continent of the host city. This has happened only once before in modern Olympic history: During the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, the equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden, more than 9,000 miles away from the host city. That’s because Australia had strict rules requiring horses to spend six months in quarantine—and the Australian government refused to budge for the Olympics.

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.