Kaino Thomsen
Samoan taekwondo practitioner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kaino Thomsen-Fuataga (born 12 May 1991) is a Samoan sportsman who has represented his country in taekwondo [1] and rugby union. He competed in the +80 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics; he was defeated by Anthony Obame in the preliminary round and was eliminated by Robelis Despaigne in the repechage contest.[2]
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 12 May 1991 | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) (2012) | |||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 90 kg (200 lb) (2012) | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Samoa | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Taekwondo | |||||||||||||||||
Event | +80 kg | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Updated on 14 August 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union
| Occupation | Rugby union player | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In December 2012, just four months after London 2012, Thomsen announced he had quit taekwondo due to false promises, empty words and the lack of money.[3] He said he wanted to re-purpose his talents at rugby union after representing Manu Samoa in age grade rugby. In February 2013, he was part of the Samoa A squad in the Pacific Rugby Cup, in which Samoa A came runners up to Fiji Warriors.[4] Just two years after London 2012, Thomsen was then named in the Samoan national rugby union team for their 2014 mid-year tests and 2014 IRB Pacific Nations Cup.[5]
In a return to taekwondo for the Pacific Games held in Apia in 2019, Thomsen won a silver medal in a closely contested bout against Australia's Alan Salek in the +87 kg division.[6] He had won a gold medal at the games eight years earlier in Nouméa.
