Colin Jost Jokes About Foot Injury, Hosting Paris Olympics From Tahiti

Colin Jost is discovering firsthand that surfing at the 2024 Paris Olympics is not for the faint-hearted and should ideally 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 stationed in Tahiti for all the Olympic surfing events, shared a photo of his foot wrapped up in bandages after an incident. The image showed three of Jost’s five toes covered with medical tape, representing his second injury during the extended sporting competition.

“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 that almost all his toes were bloodied and cut up when he first ventured onto the reef on the French Polynesian island. Tahiti, cohosting the water games, is part of France’s overseas collectivity.

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 kicked off. “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 provided viewers insight into how his reporting gig was going, describing it as a “rural circus.”

He jested, “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 shared how he first cut up his feet during a pre-games surf session. “I did pretty well until the first wave and then I ended up standing on the coral reef,” he recounted with a laugh. “Much like the coral reef safety expert but without coral shoes on. So I got a little scraped up.”

Ahead of his trip to Tahiti, Jost’s wife, Scarlett Johansson, humorously questioned how he got the reporting gig.

“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?”

She joked that when Jost’s “dream became a reality” and he was asked to go to Tahiti for two weeks, she had no sympathy for his busy schedule.

“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 acknowledged that Jost has a passion for surfing and was thrilled he earned the opportunity 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 explained. “He loves to surf. We have a place in Montauk, he’s always out there surfing.”