American Samoa At The 2020 Summer Olympics
The American Samoa delegation included six athletes: sprinter Nathan Crumpton, sailors Adrian Hoesch and Tyler Paige, swimmers Micah Masei and Tilali Scanlan, and weightlifter Tanumafili Jungblut. Crumpton, Masei, and Scanlan were invited through universality slots, Jungblut was invited through a tripartite invitation quota, and the two sailors qualified through class-associated World Championships and continental regattas. Jungblut and Scanlan were the flagbearers for the opening ceremony, while Crumpton held it at the closing ceremony. No athletes earned medals, and as of these Games, American Samoa has yet to earn an Olympic medal.
Background
Originally scheduled to take place from July 24 to August 9, 2020, the Games were postponed to July 23 to August 8, 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This edition of the Games marked the nation's ninth appearance at the Summer Olympics ever since they debuted at the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea.
Delegation and travel
Two officials and two coaches, American Samoa National Olympic Committee president Ed Imo, attaché Meafou Imo, weightlifting coach Monica Afalava, and athletics coach Sonny Sanitoa, traveled to Honolulu on July 8, 2021, from American Samoa for a connecting flight towards Tokyo, Japan, the site of the Games. The rest of the delegation flew in from other nations and met in Tokyo before July 19, 2021.
Fourteen people composed the delegation. Officials present were Ed Imo, Meafou Imo, chef de mission Ken Yamada, and delegation secretary general Ethan Lake. Coaches present were Monica Afalava, Sonny Sanitoa, sailing coach Stephen Keen, and swimming coach Ryan Leong. The athletes that competed were sprinter Nathan Crumpton, who competed in the men's 100 m, sailors Adrian Hoesch and Tyler Paige, who competed in the men's 470, swimmers Micah Masei and Tilali Scanlan, who competed in the men's 100 m breaststroke and women's 100 m breaststroke respectively, and weightlifter Tanumafili Jungblut, who competed in the men's 109 kg category.
No American Samoan athlete earned a medal at these Games, nor has any American Samoan athlete prior.
Opening and closing ceremonies
The American Samoan delegation marched 156th out of 206 countries in the Parade of Nations within the opening ceremony, which was unusual as the nations usually march in alphabetic order, with American Samoan thus toward the beginning of former opening ceremonies. This was put in place because the organizers of the Games decided to use the formal name of the nation and the kana system.
At the opening ceremony, all athletes and their coaches were present in the Parade of Nations, with weightlifter Tanumafili Jungblut and swimmer Tilali Scanlan as the flagbearers for the nation. The delegation wore red and black elei; the men were dressed in black 'ie faitaga and the women were dressed in red and black puletasi. The flagbearers also wore red ulafala.
At the closing ceremony, sprinter Nathan Crumpton was the designated flagbearer for the nation.
Athletics
American Samoa received a universality slot from World Athletics to send a male track and field athlete to the Olympics, which allows a National Olympic Committee to send athletes despite not meeting the standard qualification criteria. The nation selected Nathan Crumpton, a skeleton athlete who previously represented the United States in international competition. He placed as high as eighth place at the World Championships but ultimately left the national team in 2019 after an arbitration case was filed against the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, as well as stating that he would like to represent his Polynesian heritage. Before the Games, Crumpton had never competed in any sprinting event, as his only athletics experience beforehand was being a long and triple jumper for Princeton University.
