FORMER Papua New Guinea (PNG) swim sensation and four time Olympian for Team PNG Ryan Pini was announced as the Chef de Mission to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee (PNGOC).
Pini has made a name for himself in the pool on a national and international athletic career spaning over 28 years for Team PNG and Papua New Guinea.
PNGOC President Sir John Dawanincura when making the announcement congratulated Ryan on his recent endorsement and appointment as Team Lead for Team PNG to the next modern and second post-COVID Olympic Games.
“As one of the most successful Team PNG athletes to the Olympics with a competitive athlete term spanning over 20 years, competing in four Olympics, three Commonwealth Games, five Pacific Games and many World Championship events representing PNG, Ryan has always embodied and lived out the four PNGOC character values of honesty, excellence, respect and openess. His sporting accolades, character and commitment to sports and life after sports for our young atheltes unquestionably make him the ideal candidate to lead PNG to its 13th Olympic games”, Sir John said.
“Ryan has been an outstanding role model and mentor for hundreds of Team PNG athletes whilst being a notable member of our Team PNG family over the years. Having him lead the 2024 Team PNG delegation to Paris is a testament and culmination of his efforts during and after his sporting career.”
Pini was born in Port Moresby, in 1981 at the Port Moresby General Hospital. He went to school at the Port Moresby International School and further completed his high school at the Port Moresby International High School. He was first introduced to swimming by his parents when he was 6 years old. Pini had potential and motivated by his parents Kevin and Seranah Pini, the budding swim sensation enjoyed the experience and challenge that the sport presented. With that background of growing up in Port Moresby, and surrounded by water, his love for the sport grew.
After completing secondary schooling at Port Moresby International School, Pini headed to Australia to study at Griffith University in Brisbane and in doing so continued with training at Yeronga Park under the guidance and expertise of Coach Rick Van Der Zant.
During the course of his time training and competing in Papua New Guinea, Pini got a real taste of what he could achieve when he took part in his first South Pacific Games in Guam in 1999 and received his first gold medal at this level of competition.
Ryan remains a true Papua New Guinean and a great sports ambassador. He has always carried the Papua New Guinea flag with pride.
Pini represented PNG in the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics whilst also serving as the PNG flagbearer at the 2008 and 2016 Olympic editions of the Games.
Pini is arguably PNG’s most successful Team PNG Athlete to have progressed to an Olympic final in any of the sports and events that PNG has fielded Athletes in since joining the Olympic Movement in 1974 as a National Olympic Committee (NOC), and the consequent attendance of the first games during the 1976 Montreal Olympics in Canada.
Coincidently, his grandfather Jack Pini was the Chef de Mission for the first Team PNG contingent to the first ever Olympic Games to the 1976 Montreal Games.
In recognition and acknowledgement of his pursuits of Athlete excellence through the sport of swimming and athlete contributions to the Pacific Games, Pini was elected Athlete Representative to the Pacific Games Council during the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby, and then again at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa.
Regionally, he is a committee member on the Athletes Commission of the Oceania National Olympic Committee (ONOC), part of the Oceania Sports Federation Organisation (OSFO), PNG Olympian Association and Sport Matters Board, and was most recently re-appointed as a member of the Swimming World governing body, FINA during the 2022 World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary.
He was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for his services to sports in PNG. In addition, he has also been awarded the PNG SP Sportsman of the Year Award for the years 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011 and 2015, in addition to him being awarded the PNG SP Sports Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
While in Oceania, his sporting excellence in the pool also bagged him the ONOC Male Oceania Athlete of the Year Award in 2015 and South Pacific Games Male Swimmer of the Meet in 2003 in recognition of his win in 7 events where he also set 4 in Games’ Records.
Team PNG will be drawing from Pini’s vast experience as they ramp up their preparations to Paris, France games.
Meanwhile, Paris 2024 will see a new vision of Olympism in action, delivered in a unique spirit of international celebration.
Paris, one of the world’s most inspirational cities, hopes to offer a memorable stage for the athletes – and a truly global platform to promote them, and their incredible stories.
“And we will partner with the entire Olympic family to demonstrate that, more than ever after an extremely challenging period, sport has a unique power to help create a better world,” IOC stated on its website.
“Our plan features 95% existing or temporary venues, and every single one has a clear, defined legacy aligned with the city’s long-term development plans.
“The sporting celebration will flow along the Seine, from the new Olympic Village, just 15 minutes from Paris city centre, to such city centre landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais.
“Paris has welcomed people from all over the world – including the founding fathers of the Olympic Movement – for hundreds of years, to collaborate and inspire each other; to shape ideas and forge the future.”
