Lionel Elika Fatupaito Courtesy of Lionel Elika Fatupaito/Facebook
Samoan boxing coach Lionel Elika Fatupaito died at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday, July 26.
The Samoa Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee confirmed that the manager passed away in the Olympic athletes’ village in Saint-Denis due to “natural causes” at the age of 60.
“Lionel was one of Samoa’s top boxing coaches and a great believer in the Olympic ideal,” SASNOC President Pauga Talalelei Pauga shared in the statement. “Our thoughts and those of the entire Samoan sporting community are with Lionel’s family, his boxers, and friends. He will be greatly missed.”
The International Boxing Association also shared their condolences in a statement.
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“We at the International Boxing Association (IBA) extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Lionel Elika Fatupaito, the national boxing coach of Samoa, who tragically passed away during the Paris 2024 [Olympics],” they wrote. “Lionel’s dedication and passion for the sport have left an indelible mark on the boxing community. His legacy will continue to inspire future generations. Our thoughts and prayers are with Team Samoa and all those affected by this profound loss.”
Lionel Elika Fatupaito Courtesy of Lionel Elika Fatupaito/Facebook
Fatupaito coached the top-seeded heavyweight boxer at the 2024 Olympics – and Samoa’s only boxer at the Games – Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali. In a statement shared to Facebook, the 25-year-old celebrated the “old man” he’d known for more than a decade.
“I first met coach Lionel when I was 15 trialing for Samoa’s Youth team. He was a kind and generous coach, not only with his time, material things, but also his knowledge. You will be sorely missed coach, your dream was to attend an Olympics with me and dad, now you’ve left too early we haven’t had our first fight at the Olympics like we planned!” Plodzicki-Faoagali wrote. “Rest well old man, gonna miss you out there, you were the calm one and dad the storm of our corner.”
Plodzicki-Faoagali also shared his last photo with the coach, in a send off to his “grand master” via his Instagram Story. The boxer’s first match of the 2024 Olympics is scheduled for tomorrow against Belgian boxer Victor Schelstraete.
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Fatupaito is the sixth coach to die during the Olympics in modern history. The last death of a coach came in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 when German canoe slalom coach and former silver medalist Stefan Henze died from injuries sustained in a taxi cab crash. The other four coaches to pass during the Olympics were all Israeli hostages killed during the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972.