He was fishing when he heard about the volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami in his home country.
After that, Pita Taufatofua first tried to get in touch with his family in the island nation of Tonga.
Days of uncertainty followed for the athlete, who was not on one of the Polynesian islands, but in Australia in a training camp, as he reported on Instagram.
There he also kept his followers up to date: that his father, the governor of Ha'apai, was at the opening session of parliament on Saturday when the natural disaster occurred;
that because of this he could no longer fly home;
and also that the son heard nothing from him and his family because there was no communication to and from Tonga for days.
Taufatofua, who became the first athlete since 1924 to compete in three consecutive Olympic Games (2016, 2018 and 2020), summer and winter, in taekwondo and cross-country skiing, began setting up a fundraiser on GoFundMe on Sunday.
In just four days, more than 550,000 Australian dollars were raised.
On Tuesday, three days after the tragedy that is said to have destroyed hundreds of buildings, the 38-year-old, who became famous as the Tonga standard-bearer with only a mat around his waist, the ta'ovala, and with a bare, oiled torso, also had good things to say about his Family reports: Everyone is doing well and their more than 100-year-old house, which has already experienced several cyclones and tsunamis, is still standing.