Four years ago the weight of the world was resting on the incredibly broad shoulders of Pita Taufatofua, the Tongan strongman who caught the world’s attention when he (twice) carried his country’s flag shirtless at the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
Taufatofua had already been to the Rio Summer Olympics in Taekwondo, and to the 2018 winter Games in Korea in cross-country skiing. For Tokyo he had set himself the ambitious target of competing in both taekwondo and canoe sprint.
With the world’s media cheering him on, Taufatofua tried valiantly to earn the Kingdom of Tonga a quota at the 2019 Szeged world championship. He tried again at the Oceania qualifiers, but he came up short. He was more fortunate in taekwondo, and once again got the chance to show of the six-pack at an Olympics opening cermony.
Since Tokyo canoe sprint has taken a bit of a backseat for the 39-year-old Tongan, but this week in Duisburg he is back in action, launching his campaign for a possible fourth Olympic Games. Earning the quota might not happen this week, but he is eying off the Oceania championships in early 2024.
“I got a new coach two weeks ago, so I’m looking forward to taking that all the way to February,” Taufatofua said.
“My goal is to go and have a good kick at Oceania. I never quit, I just go all out and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve just got to really focus on the kayaking before Paris, I just want to get more kids in these boats, it’s so much fun.”
For Tokyo the Tongan is focusing solely on canoe sprint. He says he never considered walking away from the sport after Tokyo, even though he will be 40 at the time of the Games. He knows he will struggle to math the very best, but he wants to be a role model for young athletes in Tonga.
“Absolutely I was always coming back, I love this sport,” he said.
“I was out there, those guys are so fast, they left me in the dust, but I still love the sport. I want more people to do be doing this sport, I want more kids in the Pacific to be doing this sport.
“For me, that’s what inspires me. I come here and I race, they see my time, and then the next kid that comes along, can beat that time. Eventually maybe we’ll have some people getting a medal one day.”
His partnership with his new coach is only two weeks old, but Taufatofua is confident it will make a big difference to his paddling. He said it didn’t take long for the new coach to identify his shortcomings in the kayak.
“I’m really putting a lot of energy towards kayaking,” he said.
“I have a coach now, he saw me for two weeks, he told me wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong – oh you did that right, but we can get you there. So I’ve put a lot of faith in him.”
“My body is still feeling good. I always said I would stop this when I no longer have a love for it, but this is so much fun. As a Christian, God gives strong shoulders to the strongest warriors, and more importantly the purpose is bigger than myself.
“Others see, and they say they can do better than that, which isn’t that hard guys, come and do better than me, I want you to. When the purpose is bigger than yourself, it gives you extra energy.”
Taufatofua put his body to the test on the opening day, lining up in the 500, 200 and 1000 metre races. It was a tough campaign, but this is one athlete who has never been frightened of hard work.
