Pita Taufatofua

Pita Taufatofua

Taufatofua at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Full name Pita Nikolas Taufatofua
Nickname(s) Tonga Flag Bearer
Citizenship Tongan
Born (1983-11-05) 5 November 1983
Australia
Residence Brisbane, Australia
Education Tonga Side School
Tonga High School
Saint Peter's Lutheran College, Brisbane (graduated 2000)
Height 1.92 m (6 ft 3 1⁄2 in)
Weight 100 kg (220 lb)
Sport
Sport Taekwondo
Coached by Vasini Piu
Paul Sitapa[1]

Pita Nikolas Taufatofua (born 5 November 1983) is a Tongan taekwondo practitioner and skier from Australia.[2][3] Taufatofua became widely known after footage of his appearance at the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics went viral.

Early life

Taufatofua was born in Australia[2][3] on 5 November 1983[4] and raised in Tonga.[3] He attended Tonga Side School and Tonga High School,[5] and graduated from Saint Peter's Lutheran College in Brisbane in 2000.[6] His father is Tongan and his mother is Australian of British descent.[5] He began taekwondo at age five.[7] His childhood included such traditional Tongan activities as Saturday farmwork harvesting cassava.[8]

Sports career

Taekwondo career

In the course of his career he has experienced, by one account, "six broken bones, three torn ligaments, three months in a wheelchair, a year and a half on crutches and hundreds of hours of physiotherapy".[8]

At the 2016 Oceania Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament in February in Port Moresby, New Guinea, he won his semi-final 4-3 before winning in the final against the 15th ranked fighter in the world to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.[9] He had previously tried to qualify for the Olympics on two occasions.[2] He was the first athlete from Tonga to compete in the Olympics in taekwondo.[3] He was Tonga's flagbearer for the opening ceremony.[2]

2016 Summer Olympics

During the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics, on 5 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Taufatofua, who bore his country's flag at the Parade of Nations, wore only a ta’ovala (a Tongan mat), wrapped around his waist and copious amounts of oil on his torso, which provided a very noticeable glossy shine.[2][3][10][11] Taufatofua's shirtless appearance garnered him fame on social media as footage of his appearance went viral.[3] During the taekwondo tournament, Taufatofua was eliminated in his first bout by the Iranian Sajjad Mardani once the score escalated to 16-1.[12] Taufatofua made an appearance at the closing ceremony of the games, showing up after a musical number in the same costume he wore during the Parade of Nations.[13]

Personal life

Taufatofua lives in Brisbane, Australia, where he trains six hours a day.[14] He works at Sandgate House training homeless children to develop independent living skills.[15]

He has an engineering degree and is working on his master's degree.[8] He has also worked as a model since he was eighteen.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Pita Nikolas Taufatofua. nbcolympics.com
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Martin Rogers; Dan Wolken (5 August 2016). "Introducing the Tonga flagbearer who glistened during Rio Olympic opening ceremony". USA Today. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Palazzo, Chiara (6 August 2016). "Opening Ceremony: Who is Tonga's bare-chested flag bearer?". The Telegraph. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  4. ↑ "Pita Nikolas Taufatofua". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Pita Taufatofua". Coconet. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "St. Peter's Lutheran College (official)". Facebook. 7 August 2016.
  7. ↑ "Tonga’s Taekwondo Olympian welcomed home". Nuku'alofa Times. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Tonga, Matangi (4 August 2016). "Painful Road to Rio". The Fiji Times. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "Tonga's Pita Taufatofua qualifies for Rio Olympic". Loop Tonga. 2 March 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  10. ↑ "Der heimliche Held kam im speziellen Röckchen". Die Welt (in German). 6 August 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  11. ↑ Aleythe, Saskia (6 August 2016). "Gut eingeölter Halb-Nackedei". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  12. ↑ Tonga flag-bearer Pita Taufatofua making the most of unexpected Olympic fame
  13. ↑ Oily flag bearer makes shiny comeback at Olympics Closing Ceremony
  14. ↑ Lubin, Rhian (6 August 2016). "Topless Tonga flag bearer Pita Taufatofua sends fans wild walking into Olympic stadium ceremony covered in baby oil". The Mirror. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  15. ↑ Burke, Timothy. "Tongan Flag-Bearer Pita Taufatofua Owns The Olympics". Deadspin. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
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