THE Olympic surfing was unbelievably gatecrashed by a WHALE during Monday’s women’s shortboard semi-final heats.
Fans eyes were drawn away from the action when a whale breached the water in Teahupo’o, Tahiti – 10,000 miles away from Paris.
The crazy moment occurred while Brazil‘s Tatiana Weston-Webb and Costa Rica‘s Brisa Hennessy were in the water battling it out for a place in the finals.
As the pair were waiting for another wave to surf, the whale took it’s moment to shine – breaching from the water and stealing the limelight.
The huge creature appeared to be a humpback whale, a species that can reach up 19 metres in length and weigh approximately 40 tonnes.
Fans were blown away by the incredible moment and took to social media to react.
One wrote: “This whale that showed up during 2024 Olympics surfing just won the tournament for me.”
While another added: “Iconic scenes! My heart would have stopped.”
A third commented: “Performance of the day!”
And a fourth posted: “The whale wins gold!!”
How is it scored?
A panel of five judges scores rides out of 10 points and a surfer’s best two waves are combined to give a total out of 20.
Points can be deducted if they get an interference – such as getting in the way of another surfer who has priority.
There are no particular points for a given manoeuvre, but taking on the biggest, most intense waves and riding inside the barrel – where the wave breaks – for the longest time will score favourably.
Why is it in Tahiti?
While nearly every other sport is being competed over in Paris, the European climate and glaring lack of a beach means this event has been outsourced to a warmer part of the world.
France’s surfing beaches are usually flat in the summer, while Tahiti, located in French Polynesia, has huge swells out of the south Pacific throughout the southern hemisphere winter which then hits the reefs at Teahupo’o, creating stunning waves perfect for the Olympics.
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Of course it wasn’t the whale that bagged top prize, but instead it was Team USA‘s Caroline Marks who’s score of 10.50 pipped Weston-Webb’s 10.33.
This summer’s surfing events have already given us another incredible moment after Brazil’s Gabriel Medina went viral for the “picture of the Olympics” last week.
Medina was competing against Japan‘s Kanoa Igarashi in the fifth heat of the men’s round three surfing event with waves packing massive size and power.
After starting poorly with a score of just 2.50 on his first wave, Medina then produced a wave for the ages as he scored a staggering score of 9.90, just shy of a perfect 10, on his second.
That moment led to an iconic celebration as the 30-year-old leapt off his board and pointed his finger in the air – giving French photographer Jérôme Brouillet the chance to capture one of the most incredible images.
Brouillet was quite happy with the outcome and explained how he managed to get the amazing shot.
He said: “The conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected.
“So he [Medina] is at the back of the wave and I can’t see him and then he pops up and I took four pictures and one of them was this one.
“It was not hard to take the picture. It was more about anticipating the moment and where Gabriel will kick off the wave.”
