Fan favorite Olympic weightlifter dances for an important cause
Kiribati's David Katoatau was a fan favorite for his post-lift dances, but he danced in order to raise awareness for the dangers his home country faces from climate change
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1 min read
David Katoatau became a sensation in the Olympic weightlifting event for the dances he performed after every lift.
The Kiribati native doesn't dance just because he loves weightlifting -- that's certainly part of the reason -- he also dances for attention.
Not attention for himself, but to raise awareness about his home country of Kiribati, a remote island located in the Pacific Ocean a six-hour flight south of Hawaii, and the dangers it faces due to climate change and rising sea levels.
Some experts predict that rising sea levels will make Kiribati uninhabitable within 30 years, and Katoatau is hoping to bring awareness to the issues facing his home country.
"Most people don't know where Kiribati is," Katoatau told Reuters. "I want people to know more about us so I use weightlifting, and my dancing, to show the world. I wrote an open letter to the world last year to tell people about all the homes lost to rising sea levels. I don't know how many years it will be before it sinks."
Katoatau is among those in Kiribati who have lost their homes. The weightlifter used his gold medal winnings from the Commonwealth Games in 2014 to build a house, but his house was destroyed by waves not long after being built.
In his letter, Katoatau asked for help in saving Kiribati, noting that the small island nation does not have the resources to save themselves from the island's rapidly approaching fate of disappearing under rising sea levels.
"I beg the countries of the world to see what is happening to Kiribati," he wrote. "The simple truth is that we do not have the resources to save ourselves. We will be the first to go. It will be the extinction of a race. Open your eyes and look to the other low-lying level islands around the Pacific -- they will soon fall with us. In the not too distant future, we will all drown."
Katoatau has rebuilt his home but lives, like so many in his home country that live near the water, in constant fear that it could be destroyed in a cyclone.
So he smiles, dances and entertains -- hoping to do his part in attracting attention to his country.
