2018 Winter Games. Shirtless flag-bearer turns up Olympic heat in sub-zero temperatures

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It was very, very cold in Pyeongchang for the opening ceremony. Pita Taufatofua did his part to heat things up.
Two years after stealing the show as Tonga’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, Taufatofua was back glistening beneath the fireworks in Pyeongchang on Friday. For the Winter Olympics. Again, he carried the Tongan flag in the opening ceremony. Again, he was shirtless.

With frigid temperatures in South Korea on Friday, people in the stands for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics were given a raincoat, a blanket, a knit cap, a warm seat cushion, and multiple hand and feet warmers. Meanwhile... "Tongan flagbearer Pita Taufatafua is once again shirtless & glistening w/coconut oil, just like in Rio when he went viral. BUT IT’S 17 DEGREES HERE."

After needing four Olympic cycles to become Tonga’s first Olympic taekwondo competitor in Rio, the Australia-born 34-year-old pivoted to cross-country skiing in time for Pyeongchang. He is Tonga’s sole athlete at the 2018 Olympics.

There were nearly 2,800 athletes representing 90 countries around the world, but it was the shirtless Tongan flag-bearer that everyone's talking about. In Pyeongchang, temperatures were well-below freezing for the opening ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

"Well Tonga doesn’t have seasons. We don’t have winter and summer. We only have one season. We don’t have a winter outfit. That’s our winter and our summer outfit. For 1000 years our ancestors went through the Pacific on canoes. Five minutes in a stadium is nothing," said Pita Taufatofua.

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Photo courtesy @weathernetwork and Matthias Hangst / Getty Images