Itte Detenamo

Itte Detenamo of Nauru is a three-time Olympian in the men’s super-heavy weight class (105+ kg) of weightlifting. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he finished 14th and at the 2012 Games in London, he finished 13th. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, he was Nauru’s only Olympian and had his best Olympic finish of 10th. At both the Olympic Games of 2008 and 2012, he carried his country’s flag in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Detenamo has competed in six World Championships with a best finishes of 10th in 2011 and 12th in 2009. He had two top-10 finishes at the World Junior Championships, finishing fifth in 2005 and ninth in 2006. Detenamo is a three-time Oceanian Championships gold medalist (2014, 2015, 2016) and a 2012 silver medalist and a two-time gold medalist at the Pacific Games in 2011 and 2015.

A winner of three Commonwealth Games medals, two silvers (2010, 2014) and a bronze (2006), and disappointed to have not finally won the Commonwealth gold in 2014 (where he was the Opening Ceremony flagbearer), he still maintained Nauru’s proud record of winning a medal at every Commonwealth Games they have been entered in.

Detenamo comes from a family of weightlifters including his father and sister. At 163kg (359 lbs), Detenamo’s average food consumption begins with a dozen eggs and ends with a whole roast chicken. His weightlifting heroes include the great Olympic champions Pyrros Dimas of Greece, Naim Süleymanoğlu of Turkey, and his countryman Marcus Stephen. He is the cousin of Quincy Detenamo who competed at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta in the middleweight division, finishing 20th. Quincy also competed at the World Junior and World Championships twice each in 1988 and 1989.