Tangled tale of Tonga, the Winter Olympics and u - sportstextiles: Lea SportsTextiles

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Tangled tale of Tonga, the Winter Olympics and underwear

07/02/2014
For the first time ever an athlete from Tonga has qualified to compete at the Winter Olympics, in Sochi.

A competitor qualified to represent the Polynesian nation in the luge competition. This feat has involved Tongan rugby-playing computer scientist Fuahea Semi renaming himself after a German underwear brand and competing under his new name, Bruno Banani.

The idea is the brainchild of a marketing company called Makai, which had links to the Tongan royal family. Upon finding a likely luge athlete in Mr Semi, it approached the clothing company and asked it to sponsor the scheme.

Bruno Banani, the company, agreed and Bruno Banani, the computer scientist-turned-luge-competitor moved to Germany to begin an intensive training programme, which led to his qualifying to compete at Sochi on February 8.




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