Three members of Samoa's weightlifting team, who were due to represent the country in Tokyo before their travel was cancelled due to fears over COVID-19 rates in Japan, were given their official uniforms and gifts as consolation.

The gesture by the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (S.A.S.N.O.C.) was highlighted in a 13 September 2021 report published in the online sporting magazine Inside the Games.

Of the 11 who qualified for Tokyo 2020, eight were located overseas, while three weightlifters were based in Samoa.

Vaipava Nevo Ioane was due to represent the Oceanian country in the men’s 67-kilogram division, Don Opeloge in the men’s 96kg and Iuniarra Sipaia in the women’s over-87kg.

The trio this month attended a small gathering which saw them presented with S.A.S.N.O.C. Olympic uniforms made by New Balance as well as other gifts.

Athletes based in Samoa were prevented from attending the Games by a Government order which closed the country’s international borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This meant only Samoan athletes based abroad were able to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The ceremony was attended by S.A.S.N.O.C. President Patrick Fepulea'i and Sam Swann, the C.E.O. of the National Bank of Samoa, a long-term partner of the National Olympic Committee.

Fepulea'i expressed his sadness that the weightlifting team was unable to make the Olympics, believing that Opeloge in particular stood a chance of winning a medal in his weight category.

"COVID played a big part in shattering the dreams of our athletes who were based in Samoa," he said.

“Our only team based here was the weightlifting team. I know that the athletes who had qualified for Tokyo had trained hard and were working towards peaking in Tokyo.

“To get told that you couldn’t go was gut wrenching for these weightlifters who trained so hard for this moment.”

“For those who follow weightlifting as closely as I do, the sad thing is we had an opportunity for Don to medal in his weight division. 

"From the weights he was lifting in the Oceania Weightlifting Federation League, he would have been guaranteed a silver medal with a very good chance to fight for gold.

"I note that in one previous competition, he has lifted what the gold medallist lifted."

However, the S.A.S.N.O.C. President said he hoped that by receiving the gifts it offered some consolation to the weightlifters.

“The purpose today is to acknowledge your sacrifice of missing out on going to Tokyo and present you with your Olympic gears and kit that you would have given," he said.

"It is a memento for you of the Games that you were selected [for] but not able to go to."

The S.A.S.N.O.C. management was also unable to attend the Tokyo Games with the Chef de Mission, Nynette Sass remaining in the capital Apia.

The Oceania National Olympic Committees (O.N.O.C.) chief communications officer Inoke Bainimarama served as Samoa’s proxy Chef de Mission.