Pita Taufatofua outstanding athlete, born on (November 5, 1983) is a taekwondo player and cross-country skier, was born in Australia but grew up in Tonga. Pita Taufatofua was born in Australia, but grew up in Tonga. He studied in Tonga’s primary and secondary school. Her father is from Tonga and her mother is Australian and British. He started practicing taekwondo at the age of five. Today he lives in Auckland , New Zealand , where he trains six hours a day.
Rio de Janeiro 2016
At the 2016 Oceania Taekwondo Olympic Qualifying Tournament he won in the semifinal 4-3 before winning in the final against the world’s 15th fighter to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. He had previously attempted to qualify for the Games. Olympians twice. This made him the first athlete from Tonga to compete in the Taekwondo Olympics.
He was the flag bearer for Tonga at the Games’ Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony , held on August 5, 2016. Taufatofua led the delegation of seven athletes from Tonga, wearing the me’etu dance attire ‘upaki , the best known in their country, which is performed only by men, with abundant oil on the torso, providing a very noticeable satin shine. In the past, the me’etu’upaki was only performed during events of great national importance.
In one hour, Tonga was mentioned 40.7 thousand times in different messages on Twitter. This caused him his fame on social networks, being a worldwide trend on Twitter during the Taufatofua opening ceremony.
Pyeongchang 2018
In December 2016, he posted a video announcing his plans to train and compete in cross-country skiing . In January 2018, the ” Wall Street Journal reported that he was in a race to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , Korea. del Sur , having completed most of the qualification requirements in ski races and only needing to do one last competition. He managed to qualify for the Games on January 20 in Iceland , on the last day of the qualification period, he was the second Tongan to compete in the Winter Olympics, after Bruno Banani , who participated in Sochi 2014en luge (sled descent mode).
As the sole representative of Tonga at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Taufatofua was once again the flag-bearer for his country at the opening ceremony. Even though the temperatures were below zero degrees Celsius, he again wore nothing more than traditional clothing wrapped around his waist, showing his chest and torso in oil. On Friday, February 16, 2018, he completed the Cross Country Skiing race at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games, freestyle 15 kilometers, ranking 114 out of 119 skiers. According to his statements, his main objective was “not to hit a tree” during the competition.
