At the World Championship in Canoeing and Canoeing held these days in Hungary, medals have not yet been played, but one bright star has already been lit on it. An athlete from Tonga, Pete Taufatofua, came to the competition. Sports fans remember him as a taekwondo and skier, and Internet users as a half-naked standard-bearer of their country’s national team at two Olympic Games.
The first talk about Taufatofua when he appeared in an unusual form at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. During the opening ceremony, he carried the flag of his kingdom in taoval alone - a traditional Tongan woven mat skirt. At the same time, the athlete smeared his torso with coconut oil. Taufatofua performed in a taekwondo tournament in the weight category over 80 kg and took off in the first round. Prior to this, he tried three times to get to the Olympics, but failed.
After the furor made at the summer competitions, Taufatofua decided to go skiing. They are pretty easy to qualify for the Olympics, if you imagine a small exotic country in which it does not even have to snow. An athlete from Tonga immediately ended up in Pyeongchang and entered the 15 km race, taking 114th place in it. This result was not the worst that day - behind Taufatofua there were skiers from Colombia and Mexico.
It is interesting that even then, in the midst of winter, Taufatofua did not change his traditional vestments and marched at a parade of nations in a straw skirt and a naked torso, despite the fact that on the day of the opening ceremony there was a severe cold.
Even during the Winter Olympics, Taufatofua decided that he would definitely try to get to competitions in Tokyo. Only he preferred to pass the selection not in taekwondo, which he has been engaged in all his life, but to complicate his task and again master a new sport. The choice fell on rowing in a kayak, which his ancestors had been engaged in for hundreds of years, conquering islands distant from each other in the Pacific Ocean.
“I want to go kayaking. This sport is close to my heart, because my ancestors have been practicing this activity for thousands of years when they populated the Polynesian islands. I just wanted to represent the cultural heritage of my homeland, ”the athlete said in an interview with the BBC.
To realize his new dream, Taufatofua needed about $ 150 thousand for the next 12-15 months. He abandoned the idea of collecting this money through crowdfunding, as he did before, and preferred to find sponsors willing to allocate funds. The main cost item for the newly made rower was kayaking - the cost of one competitive boat is $ 10 thousand. Until the necessary vessel was found, Taufatofua trained on a regular walking kayak.
The athlete set himself the task not only to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo, but also to win on it. Representatives of Tonga have never succeeded in this in history.
“The constant goal of my training is to win a medal, but in the past, the most important thing was just to become an Olympian. My current goal is to get to Olympic gold with the spirit of my people, ”said the athlete.
To increase his chances, Taufatofua drew the head of the rowing federation Tonga Malakai Akhokawa to trainings, along with whom he sat in a double kayak. Together they went to the World Cup in Hungary, where the first tickets to the Olympics are played.
Taufatofua's first attempt was a failure. He was not lucky to start at a distance of 200 m on the extreme road, on which the wind was blowing strongly. Because of this, the rower turned right before the start. With great difficulty, he was able to taxi to the starting line, but in an attempt to maintain his balance he missed the start of the race.
When you're facing the wrong way and they start the race without you ... But you still get a PB 😎 pic.twitter.com/5uFE0DVuQb
- Pita Taufatofua (@pitaTofua) August 21, 2019Taufatofua passed the distance in 58.19 seconds, while professional rowers should go out of 35 seconds. The athlete from Tonga was the last to finish and did not reach the semifinals. He justified such a performance by inexperience - in fact, this was his first start in a rower's career.
“The wind immediately attacked me, and I think I lost already at the very beginning. That was probably what should have happened. This is probably the worst 200 meters in my life, even if you take into account training. But I can’t control everything. Aligned, I tried my best to move forward, but nothing worked. Today was preceded by a week of training. But nothing can be done. The dream is still alive. Sometimes you wake up on the left side, and sometimes on the right. Today I woke up on the ground. To tell you the truth, I did not worry. Starting blocks, wind - for me it was all the first time. I just could not resist, ”explained the former taekwondo player and skier.
The next day, Taufatofua made another attempt. This time he went to the start of the non-Olympic 500-meter mark with Akhokawa. True, the chances of success in this form were even lower. They did not have time to buy a competitive kayak and arrived in Hungary with the usual walking. This time they lost the entire participant of the race for almost a minute.
On August 23, Taufatofua will continue to take his first steps in rowing, and this time he should be able to get to the semifinals. In the double kayak competition at a distance of 200 m, too few participants showed up, so it would be enough for the crew from Tonga to reach the finish line.
Taufatofua could not qualify for the Olympics through the World Cup, but the path to Tokyo is not yet closed for him. In February next year, the Oceania Championship will be held, where one quota will be drawn among single crews. Then in May another qualifying tournament will be held, but with the participation of all countries of the world. The last chance may be an invitation from the International Olympic Committee - such an opportunity is provided for by the rules.
However, Taufatofua can always return to taekwondo. The athlete does not deny that he can try to perform in two sports at once, which is an extraordinary event for the modern Olympic Games.