A whale breach during the Olympic surfing semifinals made Tahiti even more magical

The 2024 Paris Olympics were already set in some of the most picturesque places on earth. But it turns out local Tahitians weren’t the only ones enjoying the views at this year’s surfing semifinals.

A whale briefly stole the show as competitors were paddling out to sea, breaching beyond the break to take a quick view of the event. It rose a solid 10 feet from the surface before crashing back to the water and swimming away. It was yet another reminder that Tahiti — part of French Polynesia in the middle of the Pacific Ocean — is an absolutely stunning backdrop for any occasion.

The Olympic surfing semi finalists had a WHALE stop by. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/r14xWnLTm4

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2024

Photographers covering the event were also able to catch the whale’s brief foray into dry air even better.

Photo by Jerome BROUILLET / AFP

Thus, the Paris Olympics were given yet another blatant example of why water events in the open ocean are roughly a million times better than staging them in the E. coli-stained currents of the Seine River.