Tonga's shirtless flag bearer abandons the race to rebuild his hometown: "Now there is another mission calling me"

Live Bar February 6, 2019 The flag bearer of the Tonga delegation at the 3rd Olympic Games, Bita Tawfatofua, has decided not to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Due to a previous severe volcanic eruption and tsunami in Tonga, Bitta-Tawfatofua decided to stay in the country to rebuild his home, and he has raised more than $800,000 in relief funds. He plans to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and he said the absence this time was not the finish line, but the halftime.

"Now there's another mission calling me!" Tawfatofua said.

Bitta-Tawfatofua is both a taekwondo athlete and a cross-country skier. He was the flag bearer of the Tonga delegation at the Rio 2016 Olympics, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.