Lisa Vasa Misipeka is an American Samoan athlete who specialises in the hammer throw. She was the first woman to represent American Samoa at the Olympics.
Samoa first participated at the Olympic Games in 1984, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then. The nation has never participated in the Winter Olympic Games.
During the Parade of Nations portion of the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, athletes from each country participating in the Olympics paraded in the arena, preceded by their flag. The flag was borne by a sportsperson from that country chosen either by the National Olympic Committee or by the athletes themselves to represent their country.
During the Parade of Nations section of the 1994 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, athletes from each country participating in the Olympics paraded in the arena, preceded by name board bearers with a couple between them, and also the country flag. The flag was borne by a sportsperson from that country chosen either by the National Olympic Committee or by the athletes themselves to represent their country. The Parade of Nations was organized according to the Bokmål Norwegian alphabet. As usual, Greece leads the parade, followed by American Samoa.Due logistical troubles, Mongolia did not march in the parade, but still compete in the Games. The announcers welcomed the country in their respective national language, English, and lastly French.
Uati Maposua is a Samoan weightlifter. Maposua qualified for the Samoan squad in the men's middleweight class (77 kg) at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens by receiving a continental berth from the Oceanian Weightlifting Championships, and was later appointed as the Samoan flag bearer by the National Olympic Committee in the opening ceremony. He successfully lifted 125 kg in the single-motion snatch, and hoisted 155 kg in the two-part, shoulder-to-overhead clean and jerk to deliver a twenty-first-place finish in a field of twenty-five weightlifters with a total of 280 kg. Maposua's official results were later upgraded to twentieth position when Russian weightlifter Oleg Perepetchenov has been stripped off his bronze medal by the International Olympic Committee, after he was tested positive for anabolic steroids.
