Pita Taufatofua’s New Year's resolution: A medal and his "first kiss under the Eiffel Tower"
The Tongan multi-sport athlete has a specific wish for when the clock strikes midnight for the start of Olympic year - a ticket to Paris 2024, with some romance mixed in.
Pita Taufatofua knows exactly where he wants to be next July - under the Eiffel Tower, flag in hand, preferably not alone.
"That's the reason I'm coming to Paris," the Tongan multi-sport athlete told Olympics.com. "It's the city of love. My first kiss under the Eiffel Tower... I don't know who it'll be, but I better be there."
After three Olympic appearances, in taekwondo at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and cross-country skiing at PyeongChang 2018, Taufatofua is now aiming to add kayak to his Games repertoire. He is also helping to coach Tonga’s taekwondo team ahead of Paris 2024.
We spoke to the multi-talented athlete about the journey to his fourth Olympic Games, and the dragons he is ready to slay to make his New Year’s resolution a reality.
The fourth quest: Paddles, taekwondo mats and dragons
Taufatofua is no stranger to making grand gestures and his three iconic Opening Ceremony appearances are ample proof of that.
Wearing a traditional ta'ovala around his waist with his bare chest slathered in oil, Taufatofua proudly waved the flag in all of his Games appearances. Even at PyeongChang 2018, where temperatures on Opening Ceremony night dipped below zero degrees.
Weather-wise, Paris promises to be much more comfortable. And with a chance to take part in the first Olympic Ceremony being held outside of a stadium, Taufatofua is willing to do anything to get there, including battling dragons.
"The qualification path always looks like a guy running through a battle with a little stick and everyone else has swords and there's a dragon somewhere in the sky blowing fire," he said. "It's not. It's not easy, but I've certainly been working."
Taufatofua's best chance to secure a Paris 2024 quota in either taekwondo or kayak is through the Oceania qualification tournaments. The taekwondo qualifier will be held in April in Honiara, Solomon Islands, while the canoe sprint qualifier takes place in February 2024 in Penrith, Australia.
Taufatofua has no illusions about the difficulty of the task ahead.
"You have to beat all the other countries in Oceania. And if you get gold, then you get to go and represent your country," he said. "There's no free tickets for us."
Self-motivation from Pita Taufatofua: Start small, dream big
With two sports serving as a possible ticket to Paris 2024, not a day goes by that Taufatofua does not pick up his training equipment, be that a chest guard or a paddle.
He balances the training by focusing more on one sport or the other depending on upcoming competitions. When there are no competitions in either taekwondo or kayak, the Tongan athlete works on strength and conditioning.
"I might be training seven days a week. Six of those will be strength and conditioning and maybe I'll have another six sessions which will be sport specific. So three taekwondo, three kayaking," Taufatofua explained. "As we come closer to kayaking [competition], then taekwondo might go to two sessions, strength and conditioning to five. So all I do is train, and I love it."
As much as he loves training, Taufatofua admits he is not always looking forward to his next gym session. To get past that, he whips out his own advice from his 2019 book, The Motivation Station: An Essential Guide to Becoming Your Greatest Version.
So what are some of the tips packed in this 266-pager? Taufatofua breaks it down.
"Olympic athletes don't want to go to training as much as people think that they want to go to training," he said. "If I have to do two or maybe three sessions a day, it's not that every one of those sessions is going to be this big ball of excitement. But then what we do is we create small habits.
"So if you said to me, 'I've been trying to go for a five-kilometre run for the last month and I haven't been able to do it,' I'll say, 'Do four.' And then you’ll come back to me and say, 'I've been trying to do four. I haven't been able to do it.' I'll say, 'Do two.' And then I'll say, 'Do one,' and then I'll break it down to a point where you come and say, 'I've been trying to do a 100-metre run for the last four weeks,' and I'll say, 'Just put your shoes next to your bed. Just iron your T-shirt that you're going to run in.'"
"We break it down to its smallest possible thing that we can do and then we increase. Everyone wants to go for the five-kilometre run. But we have to build momentum. We have to start small," Pita Taufatofua to Olympics.com
If the advice in the book doesn’t motivate you in the New Year, there is also the more drastic option of signing up for Taufatofua's Warriors Shred boot camp where he puts these and other ideas into practice.
Drawing on his lifelong experience in martial arts, especially Muay Thai and taekwondo, Taufatofua leads the camp participants through a series of challenges designed to make them stronger physically and mentally.
"I take people and I make them experience something that's so uncomfortable and then they end up loving just growing as a person," Taufatofua said. "My target is to take people out of their comfort zone."
Pita Taufatofua sets a date in Paris
When it comes to Taufatofua’s own New Year’s resolution, he has one target – Paris.
The Tongan multi-sport athlete has already visited the country twice, and this time around his travel itinerary would be somewhat more colourful.
"I would like to spend a whole lot more time in France and I think it'd be even better exploring France with an Olympic medal or an Olympic jacket around my shoulders," he said.
"Maybe that's the perfect time to walk around with a ta’ovala and nothing else under the Eiffel Tower, holding that flag, high and proud. Please don't arrest me, French people. Please don't arrest me! But there will be oil. One way or another."
And as his brother got married in France, Taufatofua won’t be content simply to explore the nation's capital in his traditional attire. He is also seeking a unique experience on French soil - specifically under the Eiffel Tower - to rival that of his sibling.
"A medal would be nice as well. But imagine that, a medal and a kiss. What more can we ask for in life? I can't ask for anything else."