Meet the successor to Pita Taufatofua.
The metaphorical baton of Tongan athlete Taufatofua’s shirtless and oiled-up appearances as flag bearer during Olympic opening ceremonies was passed to American Samoa’s Nathan Crumpton on Friday.
With Taufatofu not competing in China, the attention instead turned to Crumpton, a Kenyan-born, Princeton-graduate skeleton racer, as he strolled into Beijing’s National Stadium to mark the official start of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Twitter users, perhaps predictably, enjoyed his appearance:
I'll now be cheering @NICrumpton at #Beijing2022 - after going shirtless in freezing temps he deserves some support. #AmericanSamoa #Skeleton
— Paul Johnson (@pjohnson_sports) February 4, 2022
Pita Taufatofua may not be there, but the athlete from American Samoa stepped up and kept the new tradition of shirtless, oiled-up South Pacific Islanders going strong. 😍 #OpeningCeremony #Olympics2022
— Anne R. Naugler (@SockieLady) February 4, 2022
Just waiting for Twitter to go bonkers over oiled-up, shirtless American Samoa athlete (and model) Nathan Crumpton at #openingceremony for #Beijing2022 #Olympics #Olympics2022
— Eric Hegedüs (@erichegedus) February 4, 2022
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