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Associated Press
Jul 27, 2024, 11:35 AM ET
PARIS — The team manager of the top-seeded men’s heavyweight boxer at the Paris Olympics died at the athletes village in Saint-Denis.
Lionel Elika Fatupaito died Friday morning at the village, the Oceania regional group of Olympic national committees said in a statement on behalf of its Samoan member.
The International Olympic Committee said Elika Fatupaito died of natural causes. In a statement Saturday, the IOC expressed “its condolences to the entire Samoan NOC, his family and friends.”
Elika Fatupaito was at the Olympics with a Samoan team that has one boxer who is a strong medal contender, Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali.
“No words can express how I feel but rest in love coach Lionel,” Plodzicki-Faoagali wrote Saturday in an Instagram story about his team leader, whom he described as “Grand Master.”
Plodzicki-Faoagali, 25, starts his 92-kilogram competition Sunday in a round-of-16 bout against a Belgian opponent. The Australia-born boxer is competing at his second Summer Games.
The Samoan Olympic body’s president, Pauga Talalelei Pauga, said in the Oceania statement: “Lionel was one of Samoa’s top boxing coaches and a great believer in the Olympic ideal.”
The Paris organizing committee said it was “deeply saddened to learn of the death of a member of the Samoan delegation. Our thoughts are with his family, his loved ones and his delegation.”
