Tonga’s Shirtless Flag Bearer Wasn’t At The Opening Ceremony, But American Samoa’s Was

Meet the successor to Pita Taufatofua.

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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.

Nathan Crumpton carries the flag for American Samoa into Beijng’s National Stadium during Friday’s opening ceremony.

picture alliance via Getty Images

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