Olympic surfers were having a whale of a time in Tahiti on Monday, as a whale in search of its gold medal moment in Paris decided to interrupt competition on the waters off the French Polynesian island.
During a surfing semifinal competition, as Brazilian surfer Tatiana Weston-Webb and Costa Rica's Brisa Hennessy paddled off in pursuit of the next wave, a whale, a safe distance away from the two surfers, suddenly decided to breach the water, providing the two athletes, the spectators and any photographers there a moment they will likely never forget.
Check out footage of the moment, courtesy of NBC's Olympics and Paralympics' account on X, formerly Twitter.
The Olympic surfing semi finalists had a WHALE stop by. #ParisOlympics 🐋 pic.twitter.com/r14xWnLTm4
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2024
Perhaps the whale was making the case for breaching the water to be an Olympic sport. In all seriousness, kudos to Agence France-Presse photographer Jerome Brouillet, who already captured one of the best photographs of the Paris Games with his shot of Brazil's Gabriel Medina celebrating a historic surf. Well, Brouillet has done it again.
Whales enjoying Olympic Games surfing ♥️#anothernosurfingphotosorry pic.twitter.com/sMm0Vo4d1N
— Jerome Brouillet Photography (@BrouilletJerome) August 5, 2024
As for the surfing, Hennessy narrowly missed out on a medal while Weston-Webb took silver. American surfer Caroline Marks took home the gold medal.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Olympic Surfing Surprisingly Interrupted by Whale Breaching Water .
