Olympic surfers and spectators got a reminder about who really rules the seas when a humpback whale breached nearby where the competitors were surfing. Two surfers, Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb and Brisa Hennessy of Costa Rica, were waiting for waves in the women’s semifinals on Monday when the whale lunged from the water. Although there was no official score for the whale’s performance, it won gold in the hearts of everyone watching.
The 2024 Olympic surfing competition is taking place at Teahupo’o on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti. A post on X from NBC Olympics shows the moment the whale caught surfers, spectators, and announcers by surprise.
In the short clip, an announcer is discussing the competitors when she suddenly stops and says, “wow, that’s incredible!” The other commentator chimes in: “That’s a 10 right there.”
See a humpback whale give a gold-medal performance at the 2024 Olympic Games’ surfing competition here:
The Olympic surfing semi finalists had a WHALE stop by. #ParisOlympics 🐋 pic.twitter.com/r14xWnLTm4
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2024
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Cover image from this TODAY Show YouTube video.