07/23/2021 12:30
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/23/2021 12:30 PM
Pita Taufatofua
(37) was born in Australia but grew up in Tonga and has been practicing taekwondo since the age of five, a discipline that led him to represent this small island country in Oceania worldwide, ranked 186th on the planet for its surface area and 197 in population.
However, defying all the rankings that place Tonga at the bottom of the list, every Olympic event in recent times had Taufatofua among the top trends on social media. The reason?
The particular clothing that the taekwondo player chooses to parade in the opening ceremonies
. And by "particular" it would be necessary to refer to "none": it is that the good Pita goes out to the track with his torso exposed and full of oil. This morning, in Tokyo 2020, Pita repeated the tradition but this time accompanied.
He gave the surprise in Rio 2016, when he was flagged by his humble Olympic delegation.
And a couple of years later he proposed to repeat nothing less than in the 2018 Winter Olympics, a challenge for a person from a territory characterized by beaches, where the temperature hardly drops below 19 degrees throughout the entire year. anus.
Flag bearers Malia Paseka and Pita Taufatofua, from Tonga, leading their country's delegation.
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa.
But Taufatofua went for more, trained and qualified for the Cross-Country Skiing discipline: 15 kilometers on snow, avoiding all kinds of natural obstacles, a geography unimaginable for any Tongan.
"My first objective is to finish before they turn off the light, the second ... not to hit a tree," summarized Pita, with great sympathy.
He finished 114th out of 116 participants, 23 minutes later than the winner.
But his time in PyeongChang, South Korea, was marked again by his naked torso at the opening party, despite the cold that reigned in the Asian night.
Pita Taufatofua and her show at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa.
In Tokyo 2020, Taufatofua returns to taekwondo but in the previous competition he again showed his abs with the flag of his country.
In this case, with the company of a woman, a
proposal from the organization to promote equality among athletes
.
This is Malia Paseka, the first female taekwondo player from Tonga to reach an Olympic Game.
"That we have a woman representing Tonga makes me very happy. It is a dream come true to see a woman qualify in taekwondo," said Taufatofua about his partner.
The two posed happily in the Japanese capital, proud that their small country is part of a world-renowned event.
Look also
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: with Pareto and Guzmán dreaming big, the Argentines' agenda after the opening party
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: all the details of an unforgettable opening ceremony with an emotional Argentine touch
