Olympians

Winter Olympians

THREE Pacific islanders, two from American Samoa and the other from Fiji, were scheduled to compete in February’s

Winter Olympics in Norway. Although

none of them can practice their skills in their homelands, the group consists of a cross-country skier, a down-hill skier, and the driver of a two-man bobsled team.

The cross-country (long-distance) skier is Rusiate Rogoyawa, a Fijian student in Norway, while the Samoan down-hill skier is Pio U tu, currently a resident of Colorado.

The American Samoan bobsled team has

had some big-time experience, having

competed in World Cup and European

events. The driver, who is in the US Navy, has been variously identified as Tia Muugututia and as Fa’au’uga Tia in Associated Press news stories. The Ameri can Samoa’s team’s brakeman, who helps give the sled a push at the top of the runway, is Bubba Womack, a Mainlander who almost made the US team in the last

Olympics.

According to the head of American Samoa’s Olympic Committee, Ken Tupua, the South Seas territory has been planning to participate in the bobsled event for two years. While skiing and skating are com mon wintertime activities in all cold climates, bobsledding is obscure, dangerous and expensive. The sleds operate only in

carefully-constructed, 1,350-metre-long,

pre-iced courses which careen down moun tain sides. The sleds race against the dock, with only one going down the chute at a time. □