S.F.’s Manumua enjoying ‘great experience’ in Games
TOKYO — Kuinini Manumua was trying to get packed. Her whirlwind Olympics were over, and she was shoving things into her duffel bag before heading to the airport, but her family’s video call kept going on and on, with members jumping in and out, from back in the Bay Area, and in Alaska where her brother is on his mission. Everyone wanting to talk to the family Olympian.
“It’s fun,” Manumua said the morning after her competition. “It was a great experience.”
In the women’s final weightlifting event, the 20yearold from San Francisco, who went to Lincoln High and attends San Francisco State, competed in both legs of the competition, and finished eighth. Representing her parents’ native Tonga, she was the first woman weightlifter in the history of Tonga and at these Olympics finished higher than any other Tongan athlete.
“It’s such an honor to represent Tonga,” she said. “To meet all the other athletes. It was a once in a lifetime experience.”
One of her coaches, Ben Hwa, accompanied her to Japan. Her other, Lincoln assistant football and weightlifting coach Kevin Doherty, streamed the competition over Zoom to about 40 of Manumua’s friends and families, in the predawn hours.
Doherty, who convinced Manumua to come out for weightlifting as a high school freshman, was beaming with pride.
“She is grace under pressure,” he said. “She’s carrying so many firsts. First female Tongan weightlifter, first in her family to go to college. There’s a lot of pressure walking down that hallway into the competition.
“I felt so much pride for the way she carried herself.”
There was pressure in the building. There were a lot of people watching. Manumua was in the same competition as New Zealand lifter Laurel Hubbard, the transgender athlete who has been a flashpoint for controversy. So, the venue was packed with media to watch Hubbard, whose competition was quickly over. She was unable to complete a clean snatch and was unable to advance to the clean and jerk and finished last.
“I did say hi to her — all the girls in my session are super friendly and supportive with each other,” Manumua said. “I feel bad for her that she bombed out. Bombing out at the Olympics has got to be a horrible feeling.”
Manumua did not bomb out. She completed snatches of 100 kilos and 103 and one clean and jerk of 125, finishing with a total of 228 kilos.
Around the world, back in Tonga and American Samoa where she was born, and across the United Sates, people were watching with pride. The head of the Tongan delegation emailed with delighted congratulations; Manumua finished as the highestranking Tongan of the sixperson team.
Manumua has gotten to know her team members, including the most famous one: taekwondo athlete Pita Taufatofua, the shirtless flagbearer who blew up social media in Rio and is back in Tokyo.
“He’s super funny,” Manumua said. “Everyone was getting along well, playing music and trading pins. You see countries that you know don’t get along very well with each other, but they are here for sports.
“That’s what I really love: all these countries united for sports.”
Manumua loved it enough that she’s likely to try again in three years in Paris. A year ago, she was in a knee brace and had no idea the Olympics were a possibility. Though she has things she wants to do — finish her business degree, help her father start a business, go on her mission — she might set her sights on another Olympics.
“I do want to go to another one,” she said. “I want to see how much better I can get in three years.”