Wednesday, July 31 marks the fourth day of the 10-day Olympic surfing window at the Tahitian surfing venue of Teahupo’o in French Polynesia. The competition has been suspended since unfavorable conditions set in on Monday afternoon, July 29, delaying the 3rd stage of the women’s surfing event.
The competition was marked by varied weather conditions, including massive waves on Monday morning during the men’s third round, an event that will go down in surfing competition history.
Olympics.com spoke to the President of the International Surfing Association (ISA) Fernando Aguerre in Teahupo’o, 9,000 miles from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games host city of Paris, on current conditions and programming plans.
After announcing the new suspension Wednesday morning, Aguerre said it was “the ABCs of any surfing competition: You’re waiting.” He said that despite the delays, “there’s a certain excitement you can feel when you walk around here. Even the surfers who aren’t competing, they hang out with the surfers who are competing.”
“Everyone can relax and recover, especially after this intense Monday. There were a lot of eliminations; it’s not the same to be eliminated anywhere in the world as it is to be eliminated here.
“When you see a surfer go over the lip and hit the reef, you’re happy that there wasn’t a major accident. And you want to continue to protect the athletes, that’s the number one priority, and then comes the competition.”
The decision on whether or not to start the third women’s round will be taken at 5:45 p.m. Tahiti time on Wednesday, July 31 (5:45 a.m. Paris time on Thursday, August 1).
Once competition resumes, it will resume with the women’s third round, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and the bronze and gold medal matches.
The 10-day surf window runs until August 5. Check out the full schedule here.
