Pita Taufatofua, the shirtless Tongan flag-bearer in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 Olympics will not be competing at this year’s Winter Olympics to stay home and help his country recover from the recent tsunami and volcano disasters there. But fear not, the tradition of oiled-up shirtless flag bearers has not died.
Nathan Crumpton, a skeleton athlete from American Samoa, walked shirtless in the Opening Ceremony this morning, despite the 20-degree weather in Beijing.
Cold? Never.
American Samoa brave the cold for the Opening Ceremony.#Beijing2022 #7Olympics pic.twitter.com/1Ymt7LHu8S
— 7Olympics (@7olympics) February 4, 2022
Crumpton, who was born in Kenya when his father was stationed with the U.S. Foreign Service, grew up in Africa but later in his life moved to Virginia where he graduated high school. He competed for Team USA from 2015 to 2019 but then chose to represent American Samoa in sporting competitions following the 2019/2020 season, as his mother’s side of the family is of Chinese and Polynesian background.
In 2019, he won American Samoa’s first gold medal in a winter sport while competing in the North America Skeleton Cup.
American Samoa is located in the South Pacific and is an unincorporated territory of the United States. While the IOC only allows new members that are sovereign nations, some territories or dependencies were admitted to the Olympic Games prior to that rule. The country has a population of around 46,000 inhabitants.
The country has not had much success in Winter Olympic sports due in part to the fact that it has never been below freezing in American Samoa in recorded history. The record low is 53 degrees Fehrenheit, or 12 Celsius.
In addition to skeleton, Crumpton is also a track and field athlete. He represented American Samoa at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the 100-meter dash, finishing last in his heat with a time of 11.27 seconds. He competed on the Princeton University track and field team for four years, earning All Ivy-Leauge selections in the triple jump.
As a double-sport athlete, don’t you think he wouldn’t be able to take on anything else? Well, you’re wrong. Crumpton is also a model and has written a book on economics titled Alpha Status: A Non-ficton novel. Pretty cool, right?
The Winter Olympics kicked off Friday morning with an opening ceremony and will go until February 20.
