Lionel Fatu Elika, the national boxing coach of Samoa, died in the athletes’ Olympic Village on July 26, just a few hours before the opening ceremony.
“Elika passed away this morning, local Paris time, in the Games Village,” the Samoa Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee said in a statement.
The International Olympic Committee said in a statement July 27 that Lionel died of natural causes and expressed “its condolences to the entire Samoan NOC, his family and friends”.
The 60 year-old coach was training Samoa’s lone 2024 Olympic boxer, heavyweight Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali.
Following news of Lionel’s death, Ato shared a tribute to his coach.
“I first met coach Lionel when I was 15 trialling for Samoa’s Youth team,” the boxer wrote on Facebook July 27. “He was a kind and generous coach, not only with his time, material things, but also his knowledge.”
The 25-year-old continued, “You will be sorely missed coach, your dream was to attend an Olympics with me and dad, now you’ve left too early we haven’t had our first fight at the Olympics like we planned! Rest well old man, gonna miss you out there, you were the calm one and dad the storm of our corner.”
Ato also posted his final photo of himself with Lionel on Instagram, writing, “No words can express how I feel but rest in love coach Lionel. Our last photo together before you passed yesterday Grand Master…”
The Australia-born boxer is competing in his second Olympic Games, after making his debut at Tokyo 2020. He is scheduled to compete against Belgium’s Victor Schelstraete in a 92-kg preliminary round bout on July 28.