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Tongan luger uncovered as underwear PR hoax

The heart-warming story of a man from the South Pacific island of Tonga sharing his name with the German underwear company bankrolling his Olympic luge dreams has been exposed as an elaborate marketing hoax.

Published: 1 February 2012 13:21 CET

Tongan luger uncovered as underwear PR hoax

Photo: DPA

The latest edition of Der Spiegel magazine reported the 24-year-old Bruno Banani, who is known for his “Coconut Powered” catchphrase, is really named Fuahea Semi.

And though he is indeed Tongan and is training with the German national luge team, his story – that he is the son of a coconut farmer with long-shot dreams of competing with the world’s best lugers – was a fabrication by German guerilla marketing firm Makai Europe, the magazine reported.

While he his now sponsored by the Bruno Banani underwear firm, Semi is actually the son of a cassava farmer and was recruited during a casting session in Tonga after which the PR firm convinced the Tongan government to issue a passport for him in his “new name.” He was then shipped off to Germany to begin training for this February’s Luge World Championships in Saxony, Der Spiegel reported.

At the same time the Bruno Banani underwear company promoted him on their website, and got great PR, including a recent report on the ZDF television network.

Mathias Isle, one of Makai’s executives, told Der Spiegel that the idea came about because the company was desperate for customers and wanted to do something to get them on the map.

“We wanted to prove to the world that we have good ideas,” he said.

He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Local.

It is not entirely clear how Makai is connected to the Bruno Banani company or whether managers there knew of the fraud.

Company head Jan Jassner said he hadn’t known but pledged that he remained on Banani’s side as he continues to learn how to luge.

“We will continue to support Bruno,” he said.

The Local/mdm

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The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation

Jean-Baptiste Alaize training in Antibes. All photos: AFP

The 29-year-old French sprinter and long-jumper, who features in Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix released on Wednesday, was just three years old when he lost his right leg.

Not by accident or illness but by the brutal hack of a machete.

A child caught up in the civil war in Burundi in October 1994, he watched as his mother was beheaded.

“For years, every time I closed my eyes, I had flashes. I saw my mother being executed in front of me,” he tells AFP after a training session in Antibes, running his finger across his throat.

The killers left the Tutsi boy for dead. Alaize carries a large scar on his back but he was also slashed across the neck, right arm and right leg by his Hutu neighbours.

He woke up in hospital several days later, alive but missing the lower part of his right leg which had had to be amputated.

“With my mother, we ran, we ran, but we didn't manage to run far,” he says. “We were executed 40 metres from the house.”

A decade later, after coming to France in 1998 and being adopted by a French family, he joined the athletics club in Drôme.

Fitted with a prosthetic limb, he discovered that running gave him his first night without a nightmare since the attack.

“From my first steps on the track, I had the impression that I had to run as long as possible, so as not to be caught,” says Alaize who now lives in Miami.

“I remember like it was yesterday my first night after this session, it was… wow! I had cleared my mind. I was free.

“My energy, my hatred, were focussed on the track. I understood that sport could be my therapy.”

He tried horseback riding and enjoyed it, reaching level six, out of seven, until he pulled the plug.

“It was my horse that let off steam and not me,” he laughs.

The psychologist did not work out either.

“She made me make circles and squares. After a few sessions I told her that I wanted to change my method.”

However he did click with his school physical education teacher, who directed him to athletics after he had anchored his team to a spectacular “comeback” win in a 4×100 metre relay.

His classmates had no idea he was an amputee. He had hidden it to avoid teasing and more racial abuse.

“I was called 'bamboula', dirty negro, the monkey. It was hard.”

Fortunately, the Alaize family, who adopted him after he had spent five years in a Bujumbura orphanage where his father had abandoned him, gave Jean-Baptiste a base and a home that he had not had for years.

“When I arrived here I didn't know it was possible,” he said.

“I had lost that side, to be loved. I still can't understand how racism can set in, when I see my parents who are white, and I am a black child… they loved me like a child.”

His parents, Robert and Daniele, had already adopted a Hutu child from Rwanda, renamed Julien.

John-Baptist was originally called Mugisha. It means “the lucky child” which is not quite how things worked out. His new family name, though, suits him better. Alaize is a pun in French for 'a l'aise' – at ease.

The French disabled sports federation spotted the prodigy, and he began collecting his first trophies, including four junior world titles at long jump, three of them with world records.

“It was starting to change my life and I was happy to represent France,” he says.

He went to the Paralympic Games in London (2012) and Rio (2016), where he finished fifth in the long jump, just five centimetres short of the bronze medal.

Now armed with his state-of-the-art prosthesis, which he nicknamed Bugatti, he was dreaming of taking a step up at Tokyo 2020 and going home to France with a medal but the postponement of the Games has decimated his sponsorships.

“I'm still looking to compete at Tokyo 2021 or 2022 and Paris 2024,” he says.

“If I don't succeed, I will have to turn the page which would be sad.”

He hopes that Rising Phoenix will raise his profile and maybe attract some sponsors.

The documentary's producer Ian Bonhote is in no doubt that Alaize's star is rising.

“He bursts through the screen. His story will resonate,” he says.

“The nine athletes in our documentary all have different backgrounds, but none survived what Jean-Baptiste suffered. His disability was imposed on him in such a savage and violent way.”

Rising Pheonix is available now to view on Netflix.

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