The sites of Lacanau (Gironde) and La Torche (Finistère), former candidates to host the surfing competition at the 2024 Olympic Games, said this Wednesday that they are ready to host the event if it does not take place. Tahiti. “We continued to work calmly and today, if we are called, we will of course be happy to host the Olympic surfing competition,” the mayor of the city, Laurent Peyrondet, in the commune of Lacanau (Gironde) told AFP. “Since last summer, several articles have appeared in the press reporting difficulties (…), in particular difficulties in interfering with the operation of the site. Therefore, we remained in standby mode,” he explained.
The city hosts an annual competition organized by the World Surf League (WSL) – the company that runs the professional circuit – and which has applied to host the Olympic surfing competition, which will be held at the Teahupo’o site in Tahiti in 2020. Three other territories in France: Biarritz (Pyrenees-Atlantiques), La Torche (Finistère) and Landes (Hossegor, Capbreton and Seignos) have also submitted applications.
“If we are asked, we will not say no,” Stephane Le Doare, mayor of Pont-l’Abbe and president of the Pays Bigouden Sud community in charge of the La Torche site, told AFP on Wednesday. . “At the moment we are not invited, but we are used to holding competitions and installing temporary infrastructure (…) In the summer we have medium waves, but everyone can ride them,” he said. “We need to know this quickly, before the end of the year. Because this requires a minimum of management and organization,” the mayor warned.
When asked by AFP, Landes’ department did not want to comment at this stage and Biarritz did not respond. At the end of 2019, the city of the Atlantic Pyrenees expressed regret over the decision to organize the Olympic Games in Tahiti, in its words, “the choice of a surfing spectacle.”
During technical testing on Friday, a barge planned to install a new judging tower broke coral at Teahupo’o, forcing the Polynesian government to suspend work needed for the July 2024 event.
The International Surfing Federation (ISA) welcomed the decision, inviting organizers, Polynesian authorities and opponents of the project to “intensify discussions to explore all possible options.”
Source: Le Parisien
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