PITA TAUFATOFUA was the oiled-up icon of the Rio Olympics – and now the topless Tongan will deliver an even greater surprise at the Winter Games in North Korea.
The taekwondo exponent, 34, sprung to social media fame in 2016 as his country’s bare-chested flag-bearer, his smile beaming and his body glistening with coconut oil.
Now, despite never having owned skis and seeing snow only once before last year, he will compete for balmy Pacific island Tonga in Pyeongchang at cross-country skiing.
Taufatofua is already the most important member of the Tongan skiing team.
Arguably, though, the main reason for this is that he is the Tongan skiing team.
He told the BBC: “After Rio I decided to find the hardest sport possible because I needed a new challenge.
“You’ve got to put your body through something really challenging and the goal was to do it in one year – and we did it in one year!”
But his attempt at qualification came down to the final possible event.
RED HEAD Cristiano Ronaldo suffers horrific head injury as he scores for Real Madrid and checks out his look on doc’s phone
He explained: “I thought there’s one race left, it’s the end of the world, in the arctic circle. I thought, ‘I have to give it my all – it’s grave or glory’ and I gave it absolutely everything.
“We sacrificed everything to be here – financially, I am in the worst position ever but I am the happiest ever.
“I was so happy, every race up to this moment I felt pretty bad, but this race, something felt really good.”
Taufatofua won a legion of fans for his shirtless parading in Rio.
But he admits it will be very different for him in Pyeongchang – in conditions that could scarcely be more different from Tonga.
He told the Wall Street Journal of his views on snow: “I still look at it and think: What the…”
“It’s beautiful, and I love this scenery. But it’s cold. It’s very cold.”
And, with Tonga barely having a winter, let alone winter sports, he said of his Pyeongchang dream: “In my head, I always thought I’d make it. And I had no idea how.”
Leave a comment