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Two weeks ago, Pita Taufatofua gained a sudden, if fleeting, international fame.
At the opening ceremony of the Rio Games, Taufatofua carried the flag of the tiny South Pacific nation Tonga while shirtless and covered in coconut oil, his sculptured torso gleaming. Besides lighting up the internet, his eye-opening appearance earned him a segment on the “Today” show, in which the hosts enthusiastically, and to some controversy, oiled him up.
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But Taufatofua is fundamentally an athlete. And with the Olympics almost over, he finally got his chance to be an athlete on Saturday morning, in the heavyweight taekwondo competition.
Taufatofua was up against it. At 32, he was fighting in his first Olympics after three failed attempts to qualify. His opponent, Sajjad Mardani of Iran, had won a silver medal at the 2013 world championships.
Taufatofua saluted the fans when he arrived at the mat. They quickly adopted him, chanting, “Tonga, Tonga.”
Mardani struck quickly. The score was 3-0 and then 8-0. Taufatofua gamely attacked, trying punches and spinning kicks. When he scored his one and only point, the crowd exploded, and he raised a fist in triumph. Final score: 16-1.
“I lost, and I’m smiling,” Taufatofua said afterward. “I got a point, and it was the happiest point I ever got in my life.”
It is easy to be cynical about the pieties of the Olympics, and some in the skeptical press corps may have found Taufatofua, who works as a counselor for homeless children, too good to be true. But why not end the Games with a dose of Tongan idealism?
Taufatofua says his goal is to “bring the world closer together.” A sincere good luck to him. VICTOR MATHER.