He may be the Chef de Mission for the New Zealand Winter Olympics team, but there's one other athlete Pete Wardell is going to support in Pyeongchang as well.
Wardell told TVNZ1's Breakfast today he's eager to support Pita Taufatofua's campaign to win Tonga its first ever Winter Olympics medal in South Korea.
Taufatofua first grabbed the world's attention two year's ago at the Summer Olympics when he appeared at the opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro covered in oil as Tonga's flag-bearer, but the Taekwondo athlete made headlines again on the weekend when qualified for this year's Winter Games as a cross country skier.
"It's outstanding, it's a fantastic story," Wardell said.
Taufatofua practiced mostly on roller skates in Tonga before finally transitioning over to snow for a couple of weeks before beginning his qualifying campaign for this year's Winter Games.
Wardell said he wants to help the cross-country skier go one step further.
"Normally, we'll have quite a bit to do with them because they're our brothers and sisters in Tonga," he said.
"We'll be helping them in any way we can over there."
However, Wardell said there's one condition to helping Taufatofua.
"He has to wear the oil!"
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