Boxing manager dies at Olympic village

PARIS (AP):

THE TEAM manager of the top-seeded men’s heavyweight boxer at the Paris Olympics died at the athletes’ village in Saint-Denis.

Lionel Fatu Elika died on Friday morning local time 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 Fatu Elika died of natural causes. In a statement yesterday, the IOC expressed “its condolences to the entire Samoan NOC, his family and friends”.

Fatu Elika was at the Olympics with a Samoan team that has one boxer – Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali – who is a strong medal contender, .

“No words can express how I feel, but rest in love, coach Lionel,” Plodzicki-Faoagali wrote yesterday in an Instagram post about his team leader who he described as “Grand Master”.

Plodzicki-Faoagali starts his 92-kilogram competition today in a round-of-16 bout against a Belgian opponent. The 25-year-old 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 organising 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”.