Olympic surfers score with 'awesome' floating athletes' village

With limited accommodation options in the small villages dotted around Tahiti's southern coast, Paris 2024 decided to house most surfers in the unique-looking 126-metre Aranui 5.

DIGS: The Aranui 5 cruise ship Teahupo'o, French Polynesia that surfers competing in the Olympics are living on during the Games. Picture: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Olympic surfers based in Tahiti will miss out on the spectacle of the Games' opening ceremony on Friday, but might have trumped their Paris-based peers with their accommodation in a freighter-cum-cruise ship serving as a floating athletes' village.

With limited accommodation options in the small villages dotted around Tahiti's southern coast, Paris 2024 decided to house most surfers in the unique-looking 126-metre (413-foot) Aranui 5, which is anchored in the lagoon about 10 km (6.2 miles) from the venue of Teahupo'o.