Tupou Neiufi
Tupou Neiufi is a New Zealand swimmer who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She won a gold medal for the women’s 100-meter backstroke S8. She placed fifth in the finals of the 50-meter freestyle S8. The 2024 Paris Paralympic Games will be her third Paralympic Games.
Tupou entered the 2016 Rio Paralympics as an alternate for the New Zealand team. After a teammate’s injury, she joined the team and swam in three races.
At the 2019 world championships in London, she was the silver medalist in the 100-meter backstroke S8 and eighth in the 50-meter freestyle S8.
Tupou was born on June 15, 2001. She was two-years-old when she was involved in a hit-and-run accident that caused brain bruising and left-side paralysis. She had to relearn how to sit, walk, and use her arms. Netball helped her after the accident. When she had difficulty keeping up with the other girls, her physical therapist suggested swimming. She started swimming at the age of 10. At age 11 she started competing.
In 2017 she won the Pacific Health and Wellbeing Award at the SunPix Pacific Peoples Awards in Auckland, New Zealand. She also received the 2017 Tongan Youth Excellence Award in the Senior Athlete category.
She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tupou said, “There is a quote that I always refer to [that] has helped me during my journey, by Dieter F. Uchtdorf: ‘Our destiny is not always determined by the number of times we stumble, but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward.’[1]
In a 2016 interview with the New Zealand Church News, she said:
- “Being in a high profile situation as a young Mormon has been amazing, but I would like to think of it as more of a blessing. My goal is to one day become a world champion, but through my journey I hope to inspire others to continue to strive towards their goals and dreams, because ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me’" (Philippians 4:13).[2]
