Teahupoʻo hosted Olympic surfing at Paris 2024.
The break is located on the southwestern coast of Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia. Although the Games were named Paris 2024, the surfing venue was thousands of kilometres from European France. Teahupoʻo was selected because its powerful, hollow waves provide a world-class competition setting.
The name is commonly written Teahupoʻo, with an ʻokina, although spellings without the Hawaiian-style punctuation also appear in English sources. The wave breaks over a shallow coral reef, causing thick, fast-moving walls of water that demand precise positioning.
The venue hosted both men’s and women’s shortboard competitions. Its famous barrel sections produced dramatic images, but the shallow reef also means that professional surfers need extensive experience and careful wave selection.