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Humpback Whale Drops In on Olympic Surfing Finals in Tahiti

OLYMPIC BREACH

The humpback breached in the background as two women surfers battled it out in the shortboard semifinals.

A whale breaches by the Olympic surfing competition
Jerome Brouillet/AFP/Getty

A humpback whale clearly wanted in on the action during the Paris Olympics surfing finals off the French Polynesian island of Tahiti.

The whale, thought to be a humpback, breached in the background as Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil and Brisa Hennessy of Costa Rica battled it out on Monday for a place in the finals of the women’s shortboard competition.

The scene, at the Teahupo’o reef, was captured by French photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who posted it on X with the caption “Whales enjoying Olympic Games surfing.”

The Agence France-Presse photographer appears to be in gold medal form. His photo last week of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina kicking off a wave has been described as the picture of the Paris Games, albeit taken 10,000 miles away.

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