Bruno Banani (Only Tongan Winter Olympian) Sponsored by Bruno Banani (Underwear Brand That Made Him…
Bruno Banani (Only Tongan Winter Olympian) Sponsored by Bruno Banani (Underwear Brand That Made Him Change His Name)
Mental Floss ran down the athletes who are representing their countries solo at Sochi this year, and although not all the stories are of Cool Runnings magnitude (half are sort of “I’m a Dartmouth-educated Rhodes scholar who happened to be born in Bermuda,” which is still cool!) I am finding a few of them deeply intriguing. There’s a 43-year-old Sherpa coming through for Nepal in cross-country skiing, a skier from Tajikistan, which is a country with only one ski lift, and the curious case of Bruno Banani:
If you do a Google search for the name Bruno Banani, you will get the German underwear company of that name. But it’s also the name of the first Winter Olympian from Tonga. Born Fuahea Semi, the Tongan rugby player and luger went by Bruno Banani to court sponsorship from the company. It was part of a deal endorsed by the Tongan royal family to enable the athlete to afford training in Germany with the world’s best lugers. The company insinuated that the name was just a coincidence that led to the sponsorship, but that story unraveled quickly. It wasn’t “just” a hoax; Semi legally changed his name to Bruno Banani. The International Olympic Committee decided that even though using a sponsor’s name is in bad taste, Banani is the name on his passport, so he will be the lone athlete representing Tonga at Sochi in the luge event.