Tyoni Batsiua

Tyoni Batsiua (October 14, 1981 – 2004) was a Nauruan weightlifter. She won the Oceania Weightlifting Championships several times and earned six gold medals at the South Pacific Games.^[2] She went on to compete in the World Weightlifting Championships and the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Her career was cut short in 2004 by her sudden death at age 22.^[3]

Tyoni Batsiua was born in Nauru's Boe District in 1981.^[3][4] She was a member of the Eamwit Tribe.^[3]

Her first weightlifting success came as a teenager at the 1997 South Pacific Mini Games in Pago Pago. Two years later, she competed in the 1999 South Pacific Games in Guam, taking home three gold medals.^[5] She won another three at the 2003 South Pacific Games in Fiji.^[6] She also competed at the 1998 World Weightlifting Championships in Finland and the 2002 Commonwealth Games.^[4][7][8]

In 2004, she planned to compete in the Summer Olympics in Athens, but late that January, she suffered serious injuries in a car accident. She died a few days later, on January 31 or February 1, 2004, at a hospital in Denigomodu District.^[3] She left one daughter, named Oceana.^[9] At the time of her death she held the junior and senior records in Oceania for the 58 kg class.^[10] The Tyoni Batsiua Memorial Cup was established in Nauru in her honor.^[11]