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'I want to still be alive for my race!' Tongan flag-bearer wrapping up warm at Winter Olympics opening ceremony

February 6, 2018

Pete Wardell is just as mesmerised by Pita Taufatofua's story as the rest of the world.

The Tongan flag-bearer who caught the world's attention two years ago at the Rio Olympics opening ceremony with his topless entrance says he won't be trying the same stunt at this year's Winter Olympics.

Pita Taufatofua became a global sensation as he carried Tonga's flag into Maracana Stadium with a heavy coat of oil on his skin but he admits the freezing temperatures of Pyeongchang are enough to not think about doing it a second time.

"I want to still be alive for my race. It's going to be freezing, so I will be keeping nice and warm," Taufatofua told Britain's Press Association. 

Taufatofua heads to this year's Winter Olympics as Tonga's only representative after qualifying as a cross-country skiier last month.

The qualification was on the 34-year-old's seventh and final attempt having only picked up the sport after the Rio Olympics.

Taufatofua first skied in January last year. Before that he had only seen snow once, he told PA.

"After Rio I needed a new challenge," he said. "Could I do a new sport, the hardest I could think of, in a year?"

The Tongan athlete competed in Taekwondo at the 2016 Summer Games - an event he'd like to compete in again in Tokyo in two years time.

"I feel I have got unfinished business with taekwondo," he told PA.

Pyeongchang is just the second time in Tonga's history they as a nation will compete at a Winter Olympics.

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