Tongan star Pita Taufatofua accused of 'cheating the system' to get to Winter Olympics Featured
Pita Taufatofua
15 April, 2018. The International Ski Federation (FIS) is reviewing its qualification process for cross-country skiing for the 2022 Games in Beijing due to concerns over "results inconsistencies" of several athletes competing this year.
And Tongan star Pita Taufatofua, who turned heads at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio with his shirtless, oiled-up look as the flag bearer for his country, has been linked to the controversy.
Taufatofua's rivals claim he didn't belong at the Winter Olympics. He was the first athlete from Tonga to represent his nation in both the summer and winter games. Taufatofua competed in the winter Olympics as a cross-country skier, despite living in a tropical nation that has no snow. He competed in taekwondo in Rio.
But Taufatofua's rivals revealed to Stuff he "cheated" his way into this year's Winter Olympics.
Cesar Baena, a member of the Venezuelan nordic ski team, believes Taufatofua cheated the system.
"What we saw with Pita, I'm sad to say, is someone who cheated the system, someone who got [around] the rules," Baena told Stuff.
At the centre of the controversy is a series of roller-skiing events held in Bogota, Colombia late last year. To meet the Olympic qualification standard, Taufatofua needed to score under 300 points in at least five races.
Four of Taufatofua's sub-300 performances were achieved in races against the same seven competitors. Two of those races were just 2.5km sprints — well short of the 15km Olympic distance — while the other two were 10km races.
Baena, who failed to qualify for this year's Games, said the way they got those points was "cheating".
"This was a fake race they organised between themselves only for these guys to qualify," Baenea told Stuff. "If you saw their results from the real competitions against the experienced guys, they do not have the level. They got really high points. It does not match what they did in these races in Colombia.
"It is not really a fair game."
The respected Wall Street Journal earlier reported the Brisbane-based Tongan had to learn cross-country skiing from scratch and that his quest to qualify for the Winter Olympics had seen him training on roller skis rather than in the snow.
Michal Lamplot, the FIS's media and project coordinator for cross country skiing, said in a statement to Stuff the organisation was reviewing its qualification standards for the next Winter Olympics following questions over the legitimacy of the results of some of the athletes.
"FIS is aware of some results inconsistencies of several cross country skiing athletes during the PyeongChang 2018 qualification period. We are currently looking at how we can improve/modify the cross country qualification process for the next Olympic Winter games in Beijing in 2022," the statement said.
-NZ Herald
3 comments
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Loto kovi pe nautolu he sino lelei a Pita (ta'eta'e kofu he lolotonga e taimi momoko he faka-fofonga'i a Tonga) pea kaipau'i 'e Tonga a Venisuela pea fai 'ene fo'i faka-matala faka-nafala maumautaimi. 'Anefe ia ha ofi hake a Venisuela ki Tonga he sipoti. Ne tonu ke tuku'i atu a Pita kene taufale'i e motu'a ko ena ke 'oua toe kaaimu'a mai. 'Ikai kene 'ilo ia koe kakai Tonga ko e kakai ngaue malohi, kau fefeka pea toe poto he sipoti, etc.
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PITA TAUFATOFUA IS INNOCENT. Cesar Baena, from the Banana Republic of Venezuela, seems jealous of Pita's popularity as a sexy flag bearer, that he "believes Taufatofua cheated the system." How so? He posted no evidence to this claim.
Fact 1: Pita did not crash the Winer Olympics; he tried out and was given a passing grade by the Winter Olympics Committee to compete.
Fact 2: Banana eating Cesar Baena needs snow to train for cross country skiing. That's his personal problem. Is there a requirement that one trains in snow to qualify for a Winter Olympics event? Did the Jamaican bobsledders train in snow, or is there snow in Jamaica?
Fact 3: Training to ski could be done on water skiing boards, too. I learned to water ski in Tonga as a teenager before trying downhill and cross country skiing in Alaska later in life. Pita chose to train on roller skates. The skills are the same, and I had no problems on the slopes or out cross country skiing. I had not lost the skills to balance myself on skiis.
Cesar Baena needs to go suck on a banana, or whatever, rather than mocking Pita who completed the requirements to qualify to compete in South Korea fair and square. -
My heart missed a beat when I saw the heading of this article, thinking, omg, Pita cheated and got an Olympic medal!!! We only see these kinds of accusations if the accused is a medal winner!! But when the accused was in the bottom 5 finishers of the race, it is just so funny that someone even think of accusing them.
Pita made no secret of his training and the way he trained, even the roller skate thing. He told his full story before the games started, and if there was something 'cheating' about it the OIC would not have allowed him to compete. But he was allowed by the OIC!!! he did not cook the books or use drugs to enhance performance etc. That's what I call cheating. But for these losers to come up with stories like this is so un-sportsmanship.
Just ignore it Pita, whatever the result of this 'investigation'. Keep doing your good work and keep trusting yourself.