The International Surfing Association (ISA) said it proposed that next year’s Olympic competitions be judged remotely after plans to build a new tower at a famous Tahiti beach sparked fierce local resistance.
A proposal made to Paris 2024 organizers and the Polynesian government suggested the use of “live images shot from land, water and drones” to judge events at Teahupo’o on the French Pacific island.
The proposition, revealed by the ISA in a statement on Tuesday, came after a construction barge used to install a new judges’ tower in the sea broke through part of a colorful coral reef during testing.
Photo: AFP
“Faced with this change of position, Paris 2024 will contact the key stakeholders ... to understand how the ISA envisages the organization of events without access to a judges’ tower,” the Paris Olympics organizing committee said.
It added that surfing’s governing body had been “fully included in discussions since 2021 over the need to build a new tower for the proper organization of broadcasting and refereeing operations.”
The issue has had environmentalists up in arms and an online petition against the project has attracted more than 227,000 signatures.
The ISA said it put forth its proposal for remote judging on Dec. 9, a day before French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson announced that the surfing contest would stay at its planned venue.
Brotherson presented a plan in stages for construction of the new aluminium tower, which is to be completed by May 13, in time for a World Surf League event seen as a dress rehearsal for the Olympics.
During the talks with concerned parties, he had won “unanimous backing from mayors, the [Tahiti] surfing federation and even the associations, except one,” Brotherson said.
French Minister of Sports Amelie Oudea-Castera criticized the testing, which damaged the beach’s fragile corals, for being “not well prepared,” but ruled out any relocation of the surfing events.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS