Kaino Thomsen-Fuataga (born 12 May 1991) is a

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

n sportsman who has represented his country in

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

. He competed in the +80 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics; he was defeated by Anthony Obame in the preliminary round and was eliminated by

Robelis Despaigne Robelis Despaigne (born 9 August 1988, Santiago de Cuba) is a Cuban taekwondo practitioner. He won the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the +80 kg event. He beat Chika Yagazie Chukwumerije in the first round, before losing to Ant ...

in the repechage contest.

Rugby union

In December 2012, just four months after London 2012, Thomsen announced he had quit taekwondo due to false promises, empty words and the lack of money. He said he wanted to re-purpose his talents at

after representing Manu Samoa in age grade rugby. In February 2013, he was part of the Samoa A squad in the

Pacific Rugby Cup The World Rugby Pacific Challenge, formerly the IRB Pacific Rugby Cup, is an annual rugby union football tournament held in Oceania since 2006. It is contested by national 'A' teams (formed from the best locally based players, with most not alr ...

, in which Samoa A came runners up to

Fiji Warriors The Fiji Warriors, also referred to as Fiji A, is a national representative rugby team of rugby union in Fiji. It is the second-tier side to the Fiji national team. The Warriors team is selected from players in the Fijian domestic competi ...

. Just two years after London 2012, Thomsen was then named in the Samoan national rugby union team for their 2014 mid-year tests and

2014 IRB Pacific Nations Cup The 2014 IRB Pacific Nations Cup, was the ninth edition of the IRB Pacific Nations Cup, the annual Tier 2 Rugby union tournament. Unlike previous competitions, the tournament was divided into two conferences of three teams each, with no interconfer ...

.Sport: Manu Samoa names 47-strong squad
/ref> In a return to taekwondo for the Pacific Games held in Apia in 2019, Thomsen won a silver medal in a closely contested bout against Australia's Alan Salek in the +87 kg division. He had won a gold medal at the games eight years earlier in Nouméa.

References

External links

*
Kaino Thomsen-Fuataga profile
at

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

1991 births Living people Samoan male taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Samoa Taekwondo practitioners at the 2012 Summer Olympics People from Faga'alu {{Taekwondo-bio-stub