You might be deeply impressed by the topless flag bearer in the opening ceremony of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. His name is Nathan Crumpton representing American Samoa in the ongoing games.

Wearing traditional shirtless American Samoa costume, Nathan Crumpton stepped into Bird’s Nest as the Olympic flag bearer of the South Pacific island country on Feb. 4th, 2022.

“It’s brave for him to do so. The temperature was low, and everyone wore jackets.” said an athlete from Slovenia when talking about Nathan’s presence in the opening ceremony.

Group photo of USA athletes and Nathan before the opening ceremony in the Bird Nest [Photo/BFSUSIJCer]

As the only athlete in American Samoa (ASA) delegation, Nathan Crumpton was selected as the flag bearer in the opening ceremony long time ago. He kept practicing to get things prepared for the opening ceremony after arriving in Beijing on Jan. 29th. . Having tried different outfits, Nathan decided to wear the grass skirts made of hala tree and take the hala tree’s fruits as necklace. “This traditional outfit is from one of my friends. She made this for Nathan.” said Bonnie, an official of ASA.

Nathan Crumpton tries another traditional head decoration in his dorm [Photo/BFSUSIJCer]

In consideration of the low temperature, one of the National Commitee Service (NCS) volunteers had to be there to hold Nathan’s jacket before he went to the stage of the opening ceremony, and “put his jacket on as soon as he went off the stage”, as Bonnie put it.

“I was not cold. I did a lot of jumping around so that I was warm enough before taking off my jacket. Only my hands were a bit cold from holding the metal flagpole.” said Nathan.

Nathan’s costume made him stand out in the opening ceremony, and became popular in Chinese social media platforms. “I feel glad that I could entertain some people,” he said. Chinese netizens therefore remember this small country.

Nathan Crumpton and NCS volunteers (Yang Xing as the reporter and Zhou Jingyi) [Photo/BFSUSIJCer]

Seeing a cartoon version of him holding American Samoan flag, Nathan asked NCS volunteer Yang Xing to contact the painter because he wanted to put it on his sled bag or even his sled.

“I would love to give the painting to him. I’m so glad that he loves it.” The painter Kristie said. “I truly wish him good luck in his competition.” 

Nathan’s sled and the cartoon of Nathan Crumpton as the flag bearer on his sled [Photo/BFSUSIJCer]

Even though Nathan is getting popular in China, he still refuses to open more social media accounts. “I don’t really like social media. I feel like it distracted me. For now, I have to concentrate on my competition.” Nathan said.

Except for making videos, Nathan spent most of his time in training. “Skeleton is fun. Sliding through the track makes me relax, and I really enjoy it.” said Nathan.

Nathan slides through the track when practicing skeleton in Yanqing, Beijing [Photo/BFSUSIJCer]

In 2010, Nathan was attracted by skeleton when he was watching Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. “That was so cool. The athlete was riding in a board and sliding through the track at a very fast rate.” said Nathan.

“The athlete’s gesture in skeleton also reminds me of my childhood in East Africa. At that time, I spent my spare time in riding buffalo. After so many years, I still miss the feeling of that.” Nathan recalled.

With his talents and efforts in sports, he found the most success in triple jump when he was at Langley High School in Northern Virginia, U.S. At that time, he won the state championship, placed 5th at the Penn relays (and 3rd out of the Americans), and ranked as the top high school triple jumper in the country.

All these honors brought him to Princeton University where he competed as a short sprinter & jumper all four years in the university. “I graduated as the 3rd farthest triple jumper in the university history.” said Nathan.

After graduating from Princeton University, Nathan began to concentrate on skeleton training for he had no further athletics racing plans at that time. “While sometimes, I feel like fate has sense of humor.” Nathan said. “I had focused on skeleton training for many years. But to my surprise, I was qualified for 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 100-meter running and triple jump representing American Samoa.” For the first time, Nathan was selected as the flag bearer of American Samoa in Olympic opening ceremony in Tokyo.

“Standing at the Tokyo Olympics stadium and holding American Samoa flag, I fulfilled my lifelong dream.” Nathan recalled.

Soon After Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Nathan went to European countries to continue with his skeleton training. “Normally, I would do 9 or 10 skeleton competitions in a year. But this year in 2022, I did 13 runs because of the Olympics.” Nathan said. “I was qualified for Bejing Winter Olympic Games with ranking No.26 in the world.”

Nathan in front of the skeleton track in Yanqing, Beijing [Photo/BFSUSIJCer]

While except for sports, Nathan believes that he has many other things to do in his life. He has 1.18k followers on Youtube, and his videos are all about sports and Olympics experiences. In his spare time, he is also a model, a photographer and a writer.

“I’d like to use three words to describe myself. The first one is ‘thoughtful’ because I like to get prepared for everything. Every time I want to do something, I would like to find related information first and keep practicing. The second one is ‘athletics’ because I love it so much. The third one is ‘explorer’ because I like to learn everything,” Nathan said, “I want to do better, and I think I can do better.”

Written by Yang Xing and proofread by Zheng Baoguo from the School of International Journalism and Communication at Beijing Foreign Studies University