TAUFATOFUA Pita

General
CANOE SPRINT
In April 2019 he announced he would attempt to qualify in both taekwondo and canoe sprint for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. In August that year he competed at the canoe sprint world championships in Szeged, Hungary. "It's something that's much more aligned with my heritage [than taekwondo]. As a Polynesian, we travelled across the seas for a thousand years. The only way we knew how to get there was canoes, kayaks, and outrigger canoes at the time. I wanted to do a sport that paid homage to my heritage and to my ancestors. But I also wanted to bring awareness to some of the problems that the world is facing, like climate change and pollution in the ocean." (olympics.nbcsports.com, 29 Apr 2019; bbc.co.uk, 15 Feb 2020; stuff.co.nz, 17 Sep 2019)

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
He took up cross-country skiing in January 2017 and competed in the sport at the world championships the following month. He qualified for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games with one day of the qualification period left, and he went on to compete at the Games in the 15km freestyle event. "When you've got no snow, it's really hard to learn a snow sport so we looked at all the different ways I could mimic being on snow without actually being on snow. We found roller skis, I'd strap planks of wood to my feet and run on the beach, just to try and find that balance point. I'd watch a lot of YouTube and see what the professionals were doing, and I'd try and mimic that mentally in my head." (scroll.in, 11 May 2020; theguardian.com, 21 Jan 2018; espn.com, 21 Jan 2018; radionz.co.nz, 21 Jan 2018; olympicchannel.com, 01 Sep 2017)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In April 2019 he released a book, 'The Motivation Station', about his life story. He has also served as an ambassador for global children's charity UNICEF, and has performed youth work. (Instagram profile, 30 Jun 2020; nzherald.co.nz, 02 Mar 2020; olympics.nbcsports.com, 29 Apr 2019)

HERITAGE
Born in Australia to an Australian mother and Tongan father, he moved to Tonga as an infant and was eligible to represent either Tonga or Australia. (thecoconet.tv, 16 Apr 2016)

He became the first athlete to have represented Tonga at both a summer and winter edition of the Olympic Games, when he competed at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, following his appearance in taekwondo at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. (SportsDeskOnline, 26 Feb 2018; matangitonga.to, 02 Aug 2016)

He became the first Tongan taekwondo athlete to compete at the Olympic Games, when he appeared at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. (SportsDeskOnline, 26 Feb 2018; matangitonga.to, 02 Aug 2016)