By Eleanor Gee

Amini Tuitavake Britteon Fonua (26) is no stranger to high-level competitive swimming and will represent Tonga at his second Olympic Games in Rio.

In 2012, Amini represented Tonga at the London Olympics and served as Tonga’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony. He competed in the 100m breaststroke but did not reach the semifinals.

He is set to compete in the 100m breaststroke heat at Rio this Sunday, 7 August 2016 (NZ time).

Amini has distinguished himself in major swimming events over the years. He was the first Tongan swimmer ever to win a gold medal in swimming at an international event in the 50m breaststroke at the 2010 Oceania Swimming Championships.

He became the only Tongan athlete in history to hold dual Oceania and Pacific Games titles when he won three gold medals at the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, setting two games records in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events.

His medal tally so far includes 5 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals at the Oceania Swimming Championships and the Pacific Games, an impressive accomplishment.

Tongan heritage

Born in 1989 in Auckland, New Zealand, to a Tongan father, Sione Fonua and British mother, Julie, Amini holds dual Tongan and New Zealand citizenship.

He was greatly influenced by his Tongan heritage while growing up in Auckland.

“I was very much in touch with my Tongan heritage. A lot of my family members live in New Zealand, immediate and extended family, especially Tongans…all live in New Zealand. A few of them still live in Tonga,” he told the Morning Swim Show, SwimmingWorldTV (US) in 2013.

He said he didn’t get much exposure to his British side but he is very proud of his British heritage as well. He met his British family at the last Olympics in London when he represented Tonga.

Amini started swimming at the Roskill Swimming Club in Auckland and was coached by Sandra Burrow from 1999 – 2007. His talent for swimming was evident when he started breaking many Auckland and New Zealand Age Group records from the age of 10 years. In 2007, he moved to West Auckland Aquatics under a new coach Donna Bouzaid and then in 2008, Amini enrolled in Texas A&M University, USA, on a swimming scholarship.

He made headlines when he openly commented about his sexuality to his university’s newspaper, at a time when A&M was listed in the top 10 unfriendly LGBT colleges, although Amini says he was not negatively affected at all.

His resilience, determination and commitment saw him voted by his peers to be Team Captain, Big XII Conference Champion, NCAA All-American, and he received The Aggie Heart Award, a huge accolade which Amini says is “given to a teammate who puts the team’s needs above their own and exemplifies leadership and has all the qualities of what it means to be an Aggie. And to get that as a gay athlete is pretty huge, especially because it’s peer-voted.”

Amini graduated with a degree in Telecommunications and Multimedia Studies in 2013.

When asked if he thought that all of his success in his swimming career was possible when he arrived in Texas, Amini said ‘Oh absolutely”.

“No one is getting in the way of me and what I want to get accomplished, and that’s just the way it is, and I think that if that’s the attitude that you treat every single day and in swimming, the sky’s the literal limit. You can do whatever it is you want and you can achieve everything you want if you work hard and if you surround yourself with good people,” he said.

Already in Rio, Amini is being quite the organizer and leader for Polynesian and Pacific Islander representatives, ensuring all are treated equally to bigger teams from bigger countries.

He recently tweeted “Year after year we Nesians turn up to intl competitions with big teams coming in and monopolizing all the massage spaces next to the warm down pool. After contacting every manager in the Pacific, I figured we are at our best when we work together and in numbers; so while we are smaller teams, cumulatively we make a big team! And we're taking what's rightfully ours. 
Pacific people never like causing a fuss. We are too humble sometimes and it is often to our own detriment. I'm sick of feeling like I don't count because I'm from a smaller nation. 
We work hard to get here; we make sacrifices; we deserve equal treatment at championship competitions, period.”

Amini is posting on Instagram the views from his room and the Rio venues.