Kuinini Manumua
Kuinini “Nini” Manumua is the first woman to represent Tonga in weightlifting in the Olympics.
She was born on December 12, 2000, in American Samoa and lived in Tonga with her parents who are natives of Tonga. The family moved to San Francisco, California, when Nini was 10 years old. She began lifting when she was 13 years old in an after-school program. She hated lifting at first, but after a few months of lifting with encouragement from her coach, Kevin Doherty, she went to the youth nationals and won.
At the age of 17, she qualified for the American youth world weightlifting team and won a bronze medal at the 2017 Youth World Weightlifting Championships in the women’s +75 kg category. Again representing the United States, she competed at the 2018 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in the women’s +90 kg category and came in fifth place. In the 2018 World Weightlifting Championships, she placed 21st in the +87 kg category.
In 2019, Nini competed for Tonga in the Oceania Weightlifting Championships in the women’s +87 kg category and placed fifth. She also took part in the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships, representing Tonga in the Women's +87 kg group. She lifted 96 kg in snatch and 115 kg in clean & jerk, placing 19th.
Speaking to Matangi Tonga, Manumua explained that part of her reasoning for switching teams from the USA to Tonga was that "I wanted to represent my little country so it can, hopefully, be the beginning of something for other Tongan girls like me, to feel inspired to do weightlifting. Or just lifting in general. In addition, I also wanted Tonga to have more recognition in sports, and I feel a lot of pride in representing Tonga.”[1]
Nini was able to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after receiving a tripartite invitation, which allows underrepresented countries to compete “through special invitational quota places intended to improve universality.”[2] She finished eighth in her weight class (+87 kg) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and plans to continue training to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
She is also studying business at San Francisco State University and will be the first in her family to earn a college degree. She also plans to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
