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Twenty-year-old boxer Tarona Taafaki has secured the first Commonwealth Games medal in Tuvalu’s history, winning bronze in the women’s 75kg category at Glasgow 2026 despite losing her only bout of the tournament.
Taafaki was one of just five entrants in the category, meaning she received an automatic bye straight into the semi-finals.
Taafaki’s semi-final loss still earns her bronze
In the semi-final she faced India’s Lovlina Borgohain and lost by a unanimous points decision, dropping every round on all three judges’ scorecards.
Under Commonwealth Games rules there is no bronze medal bout in boxing, so any fighter eliminated at the semi-final stage is automatically awarded bronze.
It is not the first time this has happened, with Australian boxer Taylah Robertson winning flyweight bronze the same way at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
According to World Boxing, Taafaki said she felt honoured to represent her country on such a large stage, adding that “probably 95% of the audience don’t know where my country is.”
Tuvalu is the world’s fourth-smallest country, with a population of just over 10,000 spread across ten square miles.
Her father and coach, Badi Taafaki, hopes the medal will help draw international attention to the climate crisis facing the nation, with rising sea levels expected to submerge half of the capital Funafuti by 2050.
Athletes in Tuvalu train on the island’s airport runway, the most stable open ground available, pausing whenever a plane needs to take off or land. To access better facilities, Taafaki and her siblings, who are all boxers, are now based in New Zealand.
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Small nations punching above their weight has been a recurring theme in sport this year. Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha became the most-followed goalkeeper on Instagram after his side’s historic World Cup run, another reminder of how far a small country can go on the biggest stage.
