Pita Nikolas Taufatofua (born 5 November 1983) is a Tongan athlete in taekwondo and cross-country skiing. He is also a UNICEF ambassador and motivational speaker and lives in Brisbane, Australia. Taufatofua became internationally famous after appearing in a traditional Tongan taʻovala wrapped around his waist, with his chest bared and oiled as Tonga's flagbearer in the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He went on to reprise his role as flagbearer for the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics. Early life Taufatofua was born in Australia on 5 November 1983 and raised in Tonga. He attended Tonga Side School and Tonga High School, and graduated from Saint Peter's Lutheran College in Brisbane in 2000. His Tongan father, Pita Faiva Taufatofua, would later be appointed as governor of Haʻapai in 2021; his mother is Australian of British descent. He began practicing taekwondo at age five. His childhood included traditional Tongan activities such as harvesting cassava. Sports career Taekwondo career In the course of his career he has experienced, by one account, "six broken bones, three torn ligaments, three months in a wheelchair, a year and a half on crutches and hundreds of hours of physiotherapy". At the 2016 Oceania Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament in February in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, he won his semi-final 4-3 before winning in the final against the 15th ranked fighter in the world to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. He had previously tried to qualify for the Olympics on two occasions. He was the first athlete from Tonga to compete in the Olympics in taekwondo. He was Tonga's flagbearer for the opening ceremony. Cross-country skiing career In December 2016, Taufatofua posted a video announcing his plans to train and compete in cross-country skiing. He began learning form and technique by watching YouTube videos of professional races. In January 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported he was one race away from qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, having completed most of his qualification requirements in roller ski races and only needing to make a final qualifying time on snow. Taufatofua joined forces with skiers German Madrazo of Mexico and Yonathan Fernandez of Chile to form an independent training group that rented a cabin in Austria to train on snow and travel together to races. After slow finishes in seven snow races throughout January 2018, Taufatofua's last opportunity was