Peta Tufatovwa, 38, from Tonga got a lot of attention during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in 2016 and 2018.
Only the nationally clothed Ta’ovala is dressed, smeared with coconut oil from head to toe, On both occasions he walked proudly in the Tongan flag. After the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, explained that oil It had a deeper meaning.
Oil is an important part of how we treat our skin. Athletes anoint themselves with it as a tribute to the human body, and a symbol of the country we come from and our ancestors, Peta Tuvatovwa wrote on Facebook, according to Huffington Post.
– He stole the show from Kygo
become conversational
After the Rio Olympics, he was mentioned 45 million times on Twitter, before later also making guest appearances on various TV shows, as well as receiving several sponsorship assignments.
With the help of the FIS quota of athletes from weaker ski countries, he was also able to qualify for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. He explained that he felt empty after the Olympics in Rio and wanted to find a new sport.
The former taekwondo athlete was born in Australia, but wanted to represent Tonga – his father’s country – as an athlete during the Olympics. The small island nation in the South Pacific has a population of just over 100,000 and an area of just 748 square kilometres.
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hit by tsunami
And the country hit the island on Saturday Tsunami after a huge eruption in an underwater volcano. The Australian Meteorological Institute tweeted on Saturday morning that a 1.2-meter wave was seen near the capital of Tonga, the country’s largest city.
Satellite images from the site showed an ash cloud five kilometers wide and reaching 20 kilometers in the air.
Also Immediately after 23 pm Norwegian time on Sunday evening It was the latest in a series of spectacular eruptions recorded at the Hongga Tonga Hongga Hapai volcano located on an uninhabited island 65 kilometers north of the capital.
Volcano eruption: Satellite image showing smoke from an underwater volcano earlier this month. Photo: Planet Labs PBC via AP/NTB
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Don’t call the father
in a An Instagram post published on Sunday, The Olympic icon writes that his father, Peta Tufatovwa, who is also the governor of Hapai Province, is among the many members of his family who are now missing after the volcanic eruption.
“What I know is that my father tried to get back to Ha’apai from Tongatapu right after the Parliament opened. After arriving at the airport, the plane was canceled due to the volcanic eruption. The last we heard was that he had secured our house in Veitongo right at the water’s edge. All communications with him were cut off. Our Ha’apai family,” the post stated.
As of Sunday morning, all communications with Tonga were cut off, and throughout Sunday there were still problems, as the submarine cable to Fiji was turned off, possibly due to a power outage.
And in a new post published a few hours later, Toftovua thanked his followers for all the messages he had received, noting that he had not yet heard from his father. The first reports from the island testify that the volcanic eruption led to a “disaster”, he is writing.
“Infuriatingly humble internet trailblazer. Twitter buff. Beer nerd. Bacon scholar. Coffee practitioner.”
