What are the Mangarevan Inter-Sport Olympics?  A holiday for the island and a day of full of a variety of sporting events.  We created a team of 6 people to compete.  Our team consisted of Matt, Josh, Rachel, Becca, Andrew, and Wilky.  John was the official photographer. Simone, Torsten, Lisa and I were the official cheerleaders.

The day’s activities included:

• Ping Pong
• Bacchi Ball
• Volleyball
• Cross Fit
• Tug of war using 6-man outrigger

PING PONG MATCH

Ping pong was the first game.  Each player played to 7-points and the team with the most points won.  Our team made it to the semi-finals and lost to the team that won this segment.

BACCHI BALL

Shortly after, the team made their way over to the bacchi ball court.  The goal was to toss a heavy ball as close to the marked ball without touching it.  We did well considering each player only got to practice once.

VOLLEYBALL GAME

Volleyball was next.  The team was told that they were not allowed to spike which was unfortunate as we had a couple of tall players.  The other unfortunate thing was that our team was facing into the wind which was blowing at least 20 knots.  It was a bit of a comedy, but then again our team had never played together before.

And some more fun with the volleyball tournament

CROSS FIT FUN

Cross Fit had several components.  First Rachel and Becca had to wheelbarrow across to the other side.

Next, Andrew had to do 10 burpees, then tag Wilky.

Wilky then took off running around the sports complex three times

Once Wilky finished his race, he tagged Matt and Josh who had to wheelbarrow across to the other side.

We think we came in third in the overall cross fit, but not sure as they didn’t announce it.

OUTRIGGER TUG OF WAR

The last competition of the inter-sport olympics was probably the most humorous.  They put each team into a 6-man outrigger and they played tug of war.  This is a French Polynesia national sport!

Let’s just say, it took the other team 10 seconds to win.  The good news is that our team did not flip the outrigger!

Even though we didn’t win, the team and cheerleaders had a fantastic day participating in the island olympics.

Here is a great collage of some locals, bacchi ball, ping pong, and the boys team.

THE WINNERS:

The prizes were 25lb bag of sugar for 3^rd place in each category and overall.  A giant bag of rice for 2^nd place and a box of frozen chicken for first place.  Team “L” won the overall prize which also included a frozen pig.