Colin Jost Jokes Hosting Paris Olympics Is ‘Going Great’ After His Feet Get Cut Up at Surfing Event
Colin Jost is learning the hard way that surfing at the 2024 Paris Olympics is not for a faint of heart — and should be left to the professionals.
“You know it’s going great when you’ve been to the Olympic medical tent more than any of the athletes,” Jost, 42, joked via Instagram on Monday, July 29.
The comedian, who has been on location in Tahiti for all the Olympic surfing events, shared a photo of his foot bandaged after some sort of accident. Three of Jost’s five toes are wrapped up in the snap, which is his second injury thus far during the weeks-long sporting competition.
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“This might ruin my WikiFeet score but I just arrived in Tahiti for the surfing Olympics and the reef was excited to greet me #paris2024 #showfeet,” Jost wrote via social media three days prior.
The Saturday Night Live star revealed at the time that almost all of his toes were bloodied and cut up when he first explored the reef on the French Polynesian island. Tahiti, which is cohosting the water games, is part of France’s overseas collectivity. (Joe Turpel and Michael Parsons are helming the majority of the coverage.)
In between sustaining personal injuries, Jost has been reporting live from the surfing competition.
“Olympic surfing is about to start here in Tahiti. I’m ready if needed,” he teased via Instagram on Saturday, July 27, as the events got underway. “Team USA already passed on me. Willing to defect to other countries.”
When checking in with NBC’s Mike Tirico on Sunday, July 28, Jost gave viewers insight into how his reporting gig was going, calling it a “rural circus.”
He teased, “I forgot for a while that it was the French Olympics. But then today, I saw a guy bicycling to the surf break with a striped shirt holding two baguettes. I was like, ‘Wow, the spirit of Paris is still alive here in Tahiti.’”
Jost also revealed how he first cut up his feet during a surf session before the games. “I did pretty well until the first wave and then I ended up standing on the coral reef,” he said with a laugh. “Much like the coral reef safety expert but without coral shoes on. So I got a little scrapped up.”
Ahead of his trip to Tahiti, Jost’s wife, Scarlett Johansson, poked fun at how and why he was tapped to report as part of the Olympic coverage.
“I’m like, how did he get this gig?” Johansson, 39, teased during an appearance on the Today show earlier this month. “Is this a job?”
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She joked that when Jost’s “dream became a reality” and he was asked to fly to Tahiti for two weeks she had no sympathy for the fact that he would be working crazy hours.
“I’m like, ‘Poor you,’” Johansson quipped while pretending to shed a tear. “He’s like, ‘Poor me, I’m going to be all over the place,’ and I’m like, ‘Are you?’ I think if you can have a pina colada on air while you’re working, that’s not technically work.”
The actress confessed that Jost does have a passion for the sport, so she was happy he earned the chance to go abroad.
“When they announced the Paris Olympics, he immediately found out that they were doing the surf competition in Tahiti, which is so cool,” Johansson added. “He loves to surf. We have a place in Montauk, he’s always out there surfing.”
