--- title: Lindsey Vonn and Pita Taufatofua Pose at Closing Ceremony description: Everyone's favorite shirtless Tongan flag-bearer managed to snag a photo with star skier Lindsey Vonn at the Olympic closing ceremony. canonical: https://time.com/5174953/lindsey-vonn-tongan-flag-bearer-olympic-closing-ceremony-photo/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-26T03:53:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:55.066Z og:title: Tongan Flag-Bearer and Lindsey Vonn Took the Best Selfie og:description: And the result at the Olympics Closing Ceremony was magical og:url: https://time.com/5174953/lindsey-vonn-tongan-flag-bearer-olympic-closing-ceremony-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1f0b5558d8905ec/698928d24ee2629a17311012/pita-taufatofua-lindsey-vonn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2018 Winter Olympic Games - Closing Ceremony og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tongan Flag-Bearer and Lindsey Vonn Took the Best Selfie twitter:description: And the result at the Olympics Closing Ceremony was magical twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1f0b5558d8905ec/698928d24ee2629a17311012/pita-taufatofua-lindsey-vonn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Shirtless Tongan Flag-Bearer Joined Forces With Lindsey Vonn at the Olympic Closing Ceremony  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 26, 2018 3:53 AM UTC  President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and Lee Hee-beom, President & CEO of PyeongChang Organizing Committee stand on the stage with Lindsey Vonn of the United States, Pita Taufatofua of Tonga and Olympic athletes during the Closing Ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and Lee Hee-beom, President & CEO of PyeongChang Organizing Committee stand on the stage with Lindsey Vonn of the United States, Pita Taufatofua of Tonga and Olympic athletes during the Closing Ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.Dan Istitene/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 26, 2018 3:53 AM UTC Everyone’s favorite [Tongan flag-bearer](http://time.com/5112498/olympics-2018-tongan-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua-returning/) showed up to the [Olympic closing ceremony](http://time.com/5174937/french-olympics-closing-ceremonies/) for his [final shirtless hurrah](http://time.com/5141296/tongan-flag-bearer-shirtless-winter-olympics/) of the 2018 Games and managed to snag a photo with Lindsey Vonn along the way. Pita Taufatofua capped off what seemed to be a magical two weeks at the Winter Olympics by posing for a photo with the star Team USA skier alongside a few of their fellow Olympians as well as Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee. Vonn can be seen in the shot holding out the bronze medal she earned in this year’s women’s downhill event as the shirtless Taufatofua stretches out his arms in glory. And considering the martial artist turned cross-country skier was only the second Tongan athlete ever to compete at a Winter Olympics, he definitely had a lot to celebrate. “It still feels quite strange actually being here, because it took me 20 years to get to Rio, and just one year to get here,” [he said](https://www.olympic.org/news/tonga-s-taufatofua-completes-switch-from-taekwondo-to-cross-country-skiing) at the beginning of the games. “It’s just an honour. I mean, how many countries in the Pacific get to go to a Winter Games?” See the photo below. > [](https://twitter.com/kendoll30/status/967757677358133248) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5174953/lindsey-vonn-tongan-flag-bearer-olympic-closing-ceremony-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5174953/lindsey-vonn-tongan-flag-bearer-olympic-closing-ceremony-photo/"},"headline":"Shirtless Tongan Flag-Bearer Joined Forces With Lindsey Vonn at the Olympic Closing Ceremony","datePublished":"2018-02-26T03:53:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:55.066Z","description":"And the result was magical","url":"https://time.com/5174953/lindsey-vonn-tongan-flag-bearer-olympic-closing-ceremony-photo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Winter Olympics","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1f0b5558d8905ec/698928d24ee2629a17311012/pita-taufatofua-lindsey-vonn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1f0b5558d8905ec/698928d24ee2629a17311012/pita-taufatofua-lindsey-vonn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2018 Winter Olympic Games - Closing Ceremony","caption":"2018 Winter Olympic Games - Closing Ceremony","creditText":"Dan Istitene/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5174953/lindsey-vonn-tongan-flag-bearer-olympic-closing-ceremony-photo/","name":"Shirtless Tongan Flag-Bearer Joined Forces With Lindsey Vonn at the Olympic Closing Ceremony"}}]}] ```