While most athletes holding the flag of their nation were doing so while wearing the preppy outfit chosen for them during the Opening Ceremony to the Olympics in Rio Friday night, there was one athlete who stood out for his lack of clothing. Pita Taufatofua, a taekwondo expert, carried the flag of Tonga while shirtless, smiling with his oiled-up body for the cameras as he walked in leading his nation’s delegation.
Needless to say, he stood out and received many positive reviews on Twitter.
Well hellooooo, Tonga #OpeningCeremony #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/tewSdyQcNC
— feliz navidud (@DesignedToFade) August 6, 2016
The sound you hear is your wife running away to the Tongan flag bearer.
— Slava Malamud 🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@SlavaMalamud) August 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/MarkMizzouSteel/status/761741672313151488
Of course, safety first. With that much oil, you can never be too safe.
https://twitter.com/spikesmag/status/761739761161756672
As noted during the broadcast of the opening ceremony on NBC, Taufatofua is the first athlete from Tonga to qualify for the Olympics in taekwondo. He did so while also battling through a handful of injuries along the way, like broken bones and torn ligaments that reduced him to the use of a wheelchair and crutches at times. But he’s in Rio now, and that is all that matters, right? That is the kind of feel-good story you can really rally around during the Olympics.
And if things don’t work out for Taufatofua in Rio, he always has his modeling career to fall back on. That’s not a joke either. He is actually a model. Of course he is, right?
Having good looks and being a world class athlete? That is just unfair for the rest of us who spend our time behind a keyboard typing about such things.
[Yahoo!]
