The island nation of

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

first participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics. It has competed at every Summer Games since then but has not yet entered the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

. After participating in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

for the first time in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, Kiribati started working towards membership of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

. During a meeting of the IOC in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

in 2003, Kiribati was accepted into the organization and was set to participate in the 2004 Summer games. The country's name was notably mispronounced by officials in all three languages—French, English and Greek—during the opening ceremony. Its delegation consisted of weightlifter Meamea Thomas and sprinters Kakianako Nariki (Kiribati's first Olympic competitor) and Kaitinano Mwemweata.

History

Kiribati wanted to join the Olympics in the 1980s. Their National Olympic Committee was created in 2002, and approved by the IOC in 2003.

Facilities and training

When the athletes train on their own, they typically run barefoot. The 80-90 I-Kiribati athletes have to share the ten pairs of shoes that they have when they train on their track, made of crushed coral. The lanes are black coral, with white beach sand sprinkled to mark the lanes. During the rainy season, the track floods, although the athletes still train on it. The weightlifters do not have a gym to train in; they train behind their coach's house. If it starts raining, the weightlifters stop practicing.

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Flag bearers

*: Meamea Thomas *:

David Katoatau David Katoatau (born July 17, 1984) is an I-Kiribati weightlifter. At the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships he ranked 37th in the 85 kg category, with a total of 281 kg. He ranked 4th in the 85 kg category at the 2008 Oceani ...

*: Kinaua Biribo, Ruben Katoatau

References

External links

* * *
"Kiribati's Olympic adventure"
Andrew Fraser, BBC, August 3, 2004 * Olympics {{Olympic-nation-stub