{"id":104146,"date":"2021-07-23T13:29:36","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T13:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=104146"},"modified":"2021-07-23T13:57:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T13:57:57","slug":"topless-tongan-steals-the-show-at-opening-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=104146","title":{"rendered":"Topless Tongan steals the show at Opening Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonga's Pita Taufatofua has once again gone viral on social media after entering the Japan National Stadium oiled up and topless as his country's flagbearer during the opening ceremony<\/a> for the Tokyo Olympics.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 37-year-old taekwondo practitioner and skiier was born in Brisbane and was Tonga's flagbearer at both the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in South Korea.<\/p>\n

LIVE COVERAGE: TOKYO OLYMPICS<\/a><\/p>\n

"And just like that billions of women around the world took a big breath in and decided Tonga was their second team this Olympic Games," Triple M's Poppy Penny tweeted.<\/p>\n

\"Tongan<\/p>\n

"Bloke from Tonga went very hard on the hand sanitiser," comedian Peter Helliar tweeted.<\/p>\n

"Love that the Tonga flag bearer refuses to wear a shirt every Olympics and just continues to lather baby oil on as a shirt. Power move," Barstool's Bobby Reagan tweeted.<\/p>\n

Taufatofua's story from his first Olympic entrance, at the 2016 Games, is pretty incredible.<\/p>\n

He was told by officials to "please wear the suit", but disobeyed the orders by ducking out just prior to Tonga's entrance to put on a ta'ovala (Tongan mat which is wrapped around the waist) and covered himself in oil.<\/p>\n

He's also used his fame for good. Taufatofua is a UNICEF ambassador, works with homeless shelters and is busy raising money for sporting equipment for nations in need.<\/p>\n

\"Vanuatu<\/p>\n

However, after stealing the show in his previous flagbearing appearances, Taufatofua had some competition this time around in the form of Vanuatu's Rillio Rio Rii, who matched the Tongan's signature oiled-up look.<\/p>\n

"Tonga v Vanuatu. Who wins?" SMH columnist Andrew Wu tweeted.<\/p>\n

"Vanuatu giving Tonga a run for their money in the flag-bearer stakes," Telum Media's David Skapinker tweeted.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonga's Pita Taufatofua has once again gone viral on social media after entering the Japan National Stadium oiled up and topless as his country's flagbearer […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104148,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104146\/revisions\/104148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}