Teahupo'o set to star as Paris Games takes surfing home

While most 2024 Olympians will be battling for glory in Paris, the world's best surfers will be going for gold some 16,000km away on the island of Tahiti, where the spinning blue barrels of Teahupo'o might be the real star of the show.

Competition is likely to be fierce between the sport's traditional powerhouses but host nation France are a genuine threat after two Tahitian locals qualified to compete at their home break.

"Hosting the Olympics at Teahupo'o is the best spot they could ever pick just because it's such a good wave at that time of the year," said local Vahine Fierro, who won the Tahiti Pro in pumping waves in May.

"I think the Olympics are going back to where the surf was born."

Surfing was recorded in French Polynesia, now an overseas territory of France, as early as the 12th century but only made its first Olympic appearance in Tokyo in 2021.

The surf contest in front of the idyllic lagoon-side village of Teahupo'o will bear little resemblance to Tokyo, let alone the exploits of those early wave-riders.

While Italo Ferreira and Carissa Moore carved and spun their way to gold in the murky, typhoon-churned waves of Japan's Shidashita beach, Teahupo'o breaks perfectly over a coral reef and is renowned for its heavy, hollow tubes.

"It's a totally different wave," said Lucca Mesinas, who represented Peru in Tokyo and has also qualified for Paris 2024.

"Japan was a beach break and a lot of wind. It was really hard waves to surf. And Tahiti is just an amazing island with a perfect lefthander.

"It usually is barrelling, so it's a super nice wave. It can be really big too, and it can be really strong."

Teahupo'o, which translates as "Pile of Heads" after a gruesome local legend, was picked to stage the Olympic