2018 Winter Olympics

Pita Taufatofua who competed in taekwondo in Rio gained plenty of international attention at the Rio opening ceremony, when he oiled himself up to carry the Tongan flag bare-chested into the stadium.

Now he's trying to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

He only took up cross country skiing a month ago and has competed at the word champs in Finland finishing 153rd in the 156 strong field.

His time in the 1.6km sprint freestyle qualification was 5 minutes 44 seconds more than two and a half minutes slower than the top qualifier.

 The 34 year old was born and raised in London but his father's family are from Vava'u and Tongatapu.

He said the idea of competing at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea quickly snowballed from a pipe dream to a serious target.

"It kind of started off as a joke I flippantly made over dinner one evening" he said.

"The friend that we were with said,"no that's a good idea, you should do it." He said, "Get on this. We'll help you sort it out."

According to Matangi Tonga, this follows on from the historical admission of Tonga in the last Winter Olympic Games in 2014 in Sochi with Bruno Banani competing in the Luge.

Leafa Mataele Wawryk, Secretary General/CEO of Royal Tonga Ski Federation, said that Tonga is one of FIS’s fastest growing small nations from the Pacific to develop and participate in international ski competitions.