Skip to main content

That dancing Olympic weightlifter just got the green-screen treatment

Olympic weightlifter David Katoatau, from the tiny Pacific island of Kiribati, has been making quite a name for himself during this month’s sporting extravaganza in Rio.

Whether or not he successfully lifts the weights in front of him, the 32-year-old sportsman always follows up each effort with an entertaining dance, smiles ‘n’ all, enthralling the crowd in the process.

Recommended Videos

And with the green color of the Olympic weightlifting backdrop perfect for a spot of special effects, YouTuber Night Lunch couldn’t resist chroma keying in some fitting movie clips to accompany Katoatau’s shimmying around the stage. Check it out above.

Serious message

There is, however, a serious reason for Katoatu’s shenanigans. The weightlifter says he wants to draw attention to climate change, and the risk it poses to the existence of Kiribati, a low-lying island with 313 square miles of land and a population of just over 100,000.

Located 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, Kiribati is suffering “extreme coastal erosion not just of the beaches but also of the land,” its government has said.

“Most people don’t know where Kiribati is,” Katoatau told Reuters recently. “I want people to know more about us so I use weightlifting, and my dancing, to show the world.”

Katoatau, who two years ago won his nation’s first ever gold medal at any kind of global sports competition – at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland – said he wrote an open letter to the world in 2015 “to tell people about all the homes lost to rising sea levels,” adding, “I don’t know how many years it will be before [Kiribati] sinks.”

In the letter, Katoatau asks the world to take note of what’s happening to his nation. “The simple truth is that we do not have the resources to save ourselves. We will be the first to go,” he wrote. “It will be the extinction of a race. Open your eyes and look to the other low-lying level islands around the Pacific – they will soon fall with us.”

The dancing weightlifter from Kiribati has certainly made the world sit up and take notice, though how it responds to his nation’s plight remains to be seen.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to change margins in Google Docs
Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Read more
What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app
A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Read more
Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs
A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.

Read more