Tonga at the 2014 Winter Olympics
| Tonga at the 2014 Winter Olympics |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||
| IOC code | TGA | ||||||||
| NOC | Tonga Sports Association and National Olympic Committee | ||||||||
| Website | www |
||||||||
| in Sochi | |||||||||
| Competitors | 1 in 1 sport | ||||||||
| Flag bearer |
Bruno Banani (opening and closing) |
||||||||
| Medals |
|
||||||||
| Winter Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Tonga made its Winter Olympics debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia from 7–23 February 2014. The team consisted of one luge athlete and two officials. A total of 50,000 TOP (about $27,000 USD) was announced by the Tongan Government to support the team at the Olympics. The country did not win a medal at these Games.
Tonga qualified a place in the men's singles when Bruno Banani finished in the top 38 (with a maximum of three per nation qualifying) during the 2013–14 Luge World Cup. Banani, whose birth name is Fuahea Semi, had attracted media attention by changing his name to that of a German lingerie company, as part of a marketing ploy. His name change was criticised by International Olympic Committee Vice President Thomas Bach, who described it as being "in bad taste".
In the men's singles, Semi / Banani finished thirty-second out of thirty-nine, with a combined time of 3:33.676, six seconds behind gold medal winner Felix Loch of Germany.
...
Wikipedia