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Profiles of Samoan Olympians

PAUGA LALAU, "I WANT TO BE A SUCCESS LIKE DAVID TUA"

Pauga Lalau is taking a huge step towards his dreams of becoming an international professional boxing sensation just like David Tua, when he competes in this years 2000 Olympic Games. Pauga who looks at David as an inspirational role model says that he wants to be as big and successful as David Tua who is on the brink of being the worlds best heavy weight champion.

The two athletes do have a lot in common. Pauga is competing in the same "heavy weight" category as did David in the 1992 Olympic Games. It is also noted that the "American Presents Boxing Company", where Pauga has been in preparation for the Olympic Games saw Paugas potential and have extended their support in Pauga becoming a professional. This is similar to David Tua’s road to success. Straight after the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Tua turned professional with the help of the same company.

Training three times a day, the 24-year-old holds nothing back for the Olympic Games where Coach Heber Fatupaito expects the athlete to perform well. Heber even has a gold medal in sight, although Pauga quietly comments he will put it in Gods hand. The coach has also been another influential figure in Paugas boxing career. Heber has been his first coach since he started boxing in 1995 after watching it on television.

Since then Pauga has gained gold medal, after gold medal, after gold medal. This successful rampage started in 1997 with two gold medals being won at the Samoa International Games and the South Pacific Mini Games. 1998 saw Pauga in the light heavy weight category winning gold at the Samoa International Games as well as the games with Samoa vs. New Zealand. In 1999, he won three gold medals at the South Pacific Games, Oceania Games, and the Pre Olympic Games. Finally the year 2000 saw Pauga qualify for the Olympic Games by winning gold at the Oceania Olympic Qualifying Games. The Olympic Games hopes to see Pauga continue his winning streak.

The 85kg athlete is from Sa’anapu where he grew up attending the local primary and junior secondary schools there. Despite his rigorous training schedule Pauga likes to find time to play rugby league and volleyball to keep fit. He is also an expert fisher and farmer of Samoan crops. Pauga looks forward to the Olympic Games.

WATERHOUSE DEDICATES OLYMPIC

PARTICIPATION TO GRANDMOTHER’S MEMORIES

 

Travolta Waterhouse is dedicating his 2000 Olympic Games participation to his grandmother, Nu’umoe Duffy’s memories. Travolta says that she has been the most influential caring person in his life. While growing up, it was her that looked after and cared for him. She was also the outside figure who supported and encouraged Travolta in his sporting career. Travolta who is going to the highest level of sporting competition in the world, would like to devote his competition rounds at the Olympic Games to the one person that has made a difference in life, his late grandmother.

The shy 21 year old comes from the village of Falealili and Taufusi. He like to play rugby while not training for Judo. He is the second eldest from a family of five children. He attended Malifa Primary School before moving on to Leififi Junior Secondary School to finish his schooling in year 11. Since that time, Travolta has been concentrating on his sporting career of Judo.

Under the influence of a relative and Judo colleague, Travolta began taking part in the sport in 1993. In 1994 Waterhouse won a silver medal at the Samoa Games. In the 1995 Samoa Games, Travolta won a gold medal in the 71kg, and silver in the open medal, and repeated the same victory in the 1997 Samoa Games. At the 1998 Tri-Nation competition in Pago Pago, Waterhouse took 1st place in both the 73kg and open category. In the same year Travolta gained 4th place at the South Pacific and Oceania Champs.

In 1999, Travolta competed in the Judo World Champs in Birmingham, where Samoa was present along side 197 other countries. The same year he participated in the US Judo Open Champs. In the 2000 South Pacific Oceania Champs in Sydney Travolta won two bronze in the 73kg and the open.

Due to Travoltas previous results in the Oceania Champs, the Oceania Judo Association recommended Travolta to compete in the Olympic Games as the Oceania Invitation Card. Travolta is pleased to be attending the Olympics and hopes to gain experience from competing in the games. He does however set a goal for the next Olympics to qualify and hope to win a medal.

FAAFETAI IUTANA TO FOLLOW OLDER

BROTHERS FOOTSTEPS

It was family pride, and an urge to do better than older brother and former Olympian, that influenced and encouraged the 2000 Samoan Wrestling Olympian Fa’afetai Iutana to train towards competing in the Olympics. Older brother Uati Afele who went to the Olympics for Samoa in 1988 now lives in Hawaii. It was during his return in earlier years to visit relatives in Samoa that Fa’afetai’s appetite was sweetened to the extent of wanting to compete in the Olympics in an act of brotherly competition. Fa’afetai who has had the Sydney 2000 Olympics In sight since 1997 quit his job in the middle of last year to focus and fully prepare for this year Olympics. He has been training ever since.

23 year old Fa’afetai lives and grew up in the village of Vaigaga. It was here that he went to the village primary school and later on to Faleata Junior Secondary School. Wrestling was never in his mind as a child, as he was busy rushing to compete chores around the house in an attempt to go out to play games such as volleyball and rugby. Especially as it was rugby which first caught Fa’afetais attention, claiming to have a passion for the game.

In 1997 Fa’afetai began competing overseas for the first time travelling to New Zealand for the Oceania Games. It was here that he was awarded both silver and a bronze medal.

In 1998 he was placed 4th in the 5 continents competition held in Sydney, this includes participants from all over Europe, United States and Oceania. The following year he competed at the Asia Pacific in Dunedin, New Zealand where he won two silver medals, he also won two silver in the Oceania Games held during the same time. Overall Iutana was awarded gold for highest total points. Later in the same year, two gold medals were won at the Guam South Pacific Mini Games. The year 2000 saw Fa’afetai qualifying for the Olympics by winning a gold at the Qualifying competitions held in Australia in May.

Since being appointed Samoan representative in Wrestling for the Olympics, Fa’afetai has had a strict training program involving running and going to the gym every morning, and training on mats in the afternoon and evening. He comments that he hopes to do well in the games, with a quieter comment that he also aims to beat his brothers achievements.

He says he is proud to be Samoan and extremely proud to represent Samoa. He would like to thank his parents Iutana Afele and Sera Falo for their support for continuing to look after him in his younger years. He also wants to give thanks to his aunties and uncles, commenting that he only has two medals left in his possession due to his proud relatives taking them to show piece in their homes overseas. He does re-affirm however that if he was to gain a medal at the Olympics he would not be giving it away.

BIANCA NETZLER

SAMOAS ONLY FEMALE OLYMPIAN

 

Bianca Netzler is to be the only Samoan female competitor for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.  The female cyclist who has world wide experience in the sport has been competing since 1993.  She has been keeping up with competitions regularly since that time.

 

Although born in New Zealand, being Samoan means “everything” to Bianca, who has been to Samoa numerous time.  She is a Samoan descendant with Samoan blood coming from both sides of her parents.  Her fathers family comes from Matautu while her mother comes from Papaitai’i in Savaii.  One person very close to Bianca is her Samoan grandmother, and Bianca hopes that her grandmother which is critically ill will still be alive to watch her represent Samoa at the Olympics.

 

Although proud to be Samoan it is noted that Samoa does not however provide appropriate facilities for a cyclist with continuous road problems.  There is also the problem in keeping up with cyclist’s competition and travelling broadly overseas is a must.  She comments even in New Zealand the competition is not sufficient enough therefore she has to go placing such as the United States and Europe.

 

The 25 year old first represented Samoa in 1998 at the Commonwealth, and since then has continued to represent Samoa in such events as the 1999 “B” Wold Championship where she gained a silver medal in the time trial and a 7th placing in the road race.

 

In December of the same year she attended the Oceania Championship in Sydney which is where she qualified for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

 

While preparing for the games Bianca earlier this year spent a considerably time in the United States.  Recently she is preparing on speed work in Australia where she will stay on to compete in the Games.  She has been training several times daily with a realistic goal for a top 15th placing.  In the future she plans to continue to represent Samoa with the Commonwealth coming up in two years in Manchester.

 

 MISILI MANU

RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS

 

21 year old Misili Manu has returned to his roots, to run for Samoa at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.  Manu who was born in Samoa, moved to New Zealand in his earlier growing up in Auckland and attending Mt. Albert College.  Although moving overseas, Manu has not forgotten where he came from, and that he is of Samoan ethnicity.  Manu, a speaker of Samoan comes from the village of Afega and Lotofaga.

 

Misili performed extremely well in the 1999 World Athletes Champs in Spain, the first time to represent Samoa.  He was placed the NZ under 21 Champion as well as the Australian U21 Champion for 100 meters.  Manu traveled with the Samoan contingent athlete team to the Oceania Games held in August in Adelaide Australia, although was unable to compete due to an injury in the hamstring.  It was due to Misili former performance and personal bests that he was chosen as Samoa’s wild card contingent.

 

Misili will be running the 100m and 200m where personal bests include 10.52 seconds for the 100 meters and 21.68 seconds for the 200 meters.  At present he is preparing for the games in New Zealand.  At the games Misili  hopes to gain more experience, especially with the South Pacific, Oceania, NZ Champs and Australian Championships all coming up next year.

 

Coach, Vaovai Tupu comments that bringing in Samoan athletes staying overseas with access to high quality facilities and of wide experience, it will help to improve the level of competitors in the country.   Although living in New Zealand, Misili has referred to his coach his enthusiasm in continuing to compete for Samoa in the recent years to come.  Entering the Olympic Games as a wild card is only the beginning for Misili who plans to continue and improve on his running ability in the near future.

OFISA OFISA

RETURNS TO THE OLYMPICS

 

Samoa’s Weightlifting Champion, Ofisa Ofisa will return to the Olympics for a second time this year after first competition at Atlanta in 1996.His path to Sydney has been a nightmare for this athlete as he became subject of regional and national debate as whether he should be banned from the Sydney Games given an allegation of his involvement in some incident involving an under age girl in Nauru. Only after the Supreme court intervened and a successful appeal to the IOC did  Ofisa became successful in joining the team in the last minute.  The Weightlifter who is widely known in Samoa due to success in recent years while competing in the sport received his Olympic entrance while gaining a first placing at the Oceania Games.  With a supportive sporting background and former experience at the world renown sporting games, Ofisa is expected to perform extremely well at the Games.

 

A national renown fighter Ofisa was born into the sport with his father being a regular fighter and introducing Ofisa into the game while still a boy.  Ofisa having grown up in a Weightlifting environment, says becoming an athlete in the sport was inevitable.  Therefore Ofisa began competing in 1988 while still at Leififi Intermediate with his first coach being his father a former Weightlifting Association President, as well as the “best coach Ofisa ever had”.  It took Ofisa two years to win a gold medal and has been winning gold ever since.

 

While Ofisa continued to grow, his high school years being spent at Avele College, his sporting achievements were also rising.  In 1991 Ofisa won three gold medals in the South Pacific Games in PNG.  1993 saw Ofisa take away four bronze medals at the combined 1993 Oceania and South Pacific Games in Nauru.  In 1994, 3 gold and 3 silver were won during the Oceania and South Pacific Games respectively.  1995 Ofisa came away with three gold medals at the Samoa Games, because Samoa boycotted the South Pacific Games Ofisa was not able to attend.  1996 he received gold in both the Oceania and the South Pacific Games which he then qualified for the Atlanta Olympics.  The Samoan athlete received an 18th placing, and was named Samoan Sports Person of the year due to his success.

 

Since 1996 Ofisa who finished a mechanical paper at the Samoa Polytechnic has been concentrating only on his sports with his parents supporting him financially as well as  morally.  It has been since 1996 that Ofisa decided to fully concentrate on the Sydney 2000 Olympics, with winning a medal as a goal in mind.  1997 saw Ofisa continue his winning streak with three gold medals at the South Pacific Mini Games.  He then traveled on to the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games where he fell short of a bronze medal.  Although he did receive a gold medal at the Oceania and South Pacific Games, with a bronze at the Commonwealth Champs, 1999 saw Ofisa winning three medals at the South Pacific Games in Guam, however returned from the World Champs empty handed.

 

2000 sees Ofisa in top form by setting a new record by winning a gold medal at the combined Oceania, South Pacific and Commonwealth Champs held in Nauru.  Although preparation for the Olympics has been slightly deterred since allegations hit Samoa, Ofisa is determined to put them behind him and still trains twice a day.  He comments that he would like to give something back to his family for all the continuing support they have provided for him and hopes to do well in Sydney.