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Member Since: 5/15/2010
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Tonga Flagbearer steals the Olympics Spotlight
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Early Friday morning, shortly after waking up, Pita Nikolas Taufatofua posted a status update on Facebook.
“Olympic opening Ceremony tonight! Pumped! We have a little surprise.. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it,” he wrote, adding a winky-face emoji.
About 15 hours later, it’s almost certain no one missed it.
The little-known taekwondo athlete was selected by his countrymen to be the official flag bearer for the South Pacific nation of Tonga, and made perhaps the grandest entrance by any flag bearer in recent history, appearing shirtless, greased, and smiling broadly in the middle of one of the most watched televised programs in the world.
The chiseled athlete became an instant Twitter sensation and added more than 1,000 Instagram followers within an hour of his appearance.
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The 32-year-old, Australian-born athlete, who has not advanced past the first round of a taekwondo world championship in three appearances, has been gearing up for his flag-bearing duties since July 22, per his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
He regularly posts shirtless selfies on his Instagram account, which also features images of Taufatofua holding puppies.
But before his star turn as a gleaming, beaming flag bearer, Taufatofua’s road to Rio had been anything but slick. In an interview with a Tongan news website, he said that over the years he has broken six bones and torn three ligaments, spent three months in a wheelchair and, at one point, had to use crutches for a year and a half.
His dream was to become an Olympian, per his profile, which he clinched by winning the Oceania taekwondo qualifying tournament in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in February.
“There’s nowhere else in life I can experience the same challenge that taekwondo gives me,” he told New Zealand radio in March. “Getting onto the mats; getting into the ring to fight somebody you don’t hate and whose sole purpose is to kick you in the head and your purpose is to kick them in the head.”
Since then, has tried to crowdsource money for Rio months before the Olympics began. It didn’t go as well as Friday did.
On the Generosity page registered under his name, Taufatofua asked for money to fund a training camp with world-class fighters, bring his technical coach to that training camp, hire a strength and conditioning coach, buy the electronic system that will be used at the Olympics and cover his costs of travel.
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xxx
Glisten me too, Tonga Man!
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Where is this Instagram these articles speak of 
