By Eleanor Gee

Tongan Olympian Karoline Lusitania Tatafu (18) aims to perform to the best of her ability and not let the atmosphere overwhelm her at the Rio Olympic that opens in four days time. She is one of seven athletes representing Tonga.

Lusi is one of a total of 128 archers who will compete across four events: the men's individual, women's individual, men's team, and women's team.

Born in Australia, and raised in Tonga the young archer is known to family and friends by her middle name, Lusi. 

Lusi picked up archery at age 14 in 2012 and started competing seriously in the same year at the Archery New Zealand National Championship where she won a Bronze medal and then at the Oceania Championships where she was ranked 5th.

She has gone on to compete in various other competitions, most recently winning a Silver medal at the Oceania Archery Championship in Tonga in April this year and at the same time qualifying for the Rio Olympics, a large feat. Lusi is one of seven archers that competed in the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic games to have progressed to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Lusi relocated to Australia in February 2016 to receive full time coaching with a former World Champion Archer, Ricci Cheah. She took a semester off from Tertiary studies to concentrate on training five days a week from 10am to 4pm.

Getting to the Olympics is no easy task and being self-funded meant her family has supported her and continues to support her providing 80% of costs, which includes travelling, entry to competitions and equipment. The other 20% has been received from TASA and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to compete in some competitions. World Archery 2014 sponsored the equipment she currently uses and she will receive a new bow for the Olympics.

Lusi’s aim at the Olympics is to perform to the best of her ability and not let the Olympic atmosphere overwhelm her. She hopes to achieve a personal best score and get through the first elimination round.

She has a list of future archery goals including ranking in the top two in Oceania countries, winning Gold at the 2019 South Pacific Games, winning a medal at the World Archery Championship in 2018 and winning a medal at the Olympic Games in 2020 and 2024.

Her hobbies when she is not training is spending time with family and friends, going to the beach, swimming and playing volleyball. She also helps her father, Sam Tatafu during the school holidays with boat tours at Deep Blue Diving. Lusi went to school in Tonga at Ocean of Light School, Maamaloa Side School, Queen Salote College and ACTS Community School.

Some 206 countries are competing in 306 events at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Archery is one of the oldest sports jas 128 competitors. The ranking rounds begin on August 5, to be followed by the team elminiations/medal rounds on Saturday and Sunday and the individual eliminations next week from Monday 8 August to Wednesday 10 August. The archery finals are on 11-12 August. You can follow the Olympic archery rankings at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archery_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics_–_Wo... [2]