NAME:
Beatrice Roini Liua Faumuina ONZM
BIRTHPLACE:
Auckland, New Zealand
KNOWN FOR:
Former Olympian, Gold Medalist, Television & Sports Personality and Ambassador to the United Nations. She has represented New Zealand in three Summer Olympics.
SHORT BIO / CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
Early in her career, she was coached by New Zealand sport celebrity Les Mills. At the 2004 Summer Olympics she placed 7th in the discus with a throw of 64.45 metres.
On 16 October 2005, Beatrice Faumuina was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In 2006 she appeared in New Zealand’s Dancing with the Stars where she placed second. That same year, she also became a presenter on the Television New Zealand Pacific Islands current events programme Tagata Pasifika.
After a disappointing injury had plagued her 2006 season, placing her 4th at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, in 2007, Faumuina threw 62.2 metres at a meet in Christchurch, beating rival Dani Samuels from Australia. This followed a winning throw of 62.08 throw at a meet in Canberra.
She placed 28th in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing with a throw of 57.18m, but failed to qualify for the final.
Faumuina finished seventh in the 2009 Reebok Grand Prix in New York, with a throw of 56.73 metres. She was expected to compete in the Prefontaine meet in Oregon, in order to throw the qualifying standard for the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, but did not attend.
In 2010, Faumuina participated in the Oceania Athletics Championships in Cairns, which would later become her last discus event, winning Gold and beating fellow Samoan contender, Margaret Satupai, who won Silver for her native Samoa island.
Since announcing retirement in October 2011, she is now Chief Executive Officer for BEST Pasifika Leadership Acadamey and Charitable Foundation.
- 1994 Silver Medalist Victoria Commonwealth Games
- 1997 New Zealand’s First World Track and Field Champion-Discus Throw in Athens
- 1998 New Zealand’s First World Cup Champion – Discus Throw in Kuala Lumpur (Champion and Commonwealth Games Record Holder)
- 2002 New Zealand’s First World Cup Champion – Discus Throw in Manchester (Champion and Commonwealth Games Record Holder)
- 2002 Samoa celebrated Beatrice Faumuina’s Gold Medal win at the Commonwealth Games by creating a Postal Stamp in her honor
- 2004 New Zealand Flag Bearer and Team Captain
- In 2005 she was awarded, Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to Athletics
- 2010 Gold Medalist Oceania Champion – Discuss Throw in Cairns
- Legacy:
- First female Samoan Commonwealth Gold Medalist for Discus Throw