Transcript
Now that she finally has her medal in hand, Ele Opeloge has spent the last few days reflecting on what she achieved.
"My medal is my souvenir to my life. The first time I got the medal, I took the medal home and my children look to my medal and my family. I thank God that it was the first time I got an Olympic medal."
16 secs
Opeloge was also presented with a gift of over $US15,000 dollars raised by the community through the Samoa Observer newspaper, after the government stated they only give financial rewards to gold medal winners at international events. The Observer editor Mata'afa Keni Lesa says the government has to go back and review their policies.
"It's ridiculous to expect these guys to go one step further and win gold when they can't even recognise a beautiful thing and a massive achievement - a silver medal at the Olympic level."
Mata'afa says the government seemed to rub the fact Ele had not won gold in her face.
"They kind of dangled the silver medal in Ele's face and said 'you know because you didn't win gold, try and win gold and then we can ll give you some money. I think that was very disappointing. But certainly in terms of going forward that is the message. There is nothing that can be done to Ele now and even some of the teams that have done really well in the past but I think we can learn some lessons in terms of going forward."
Opeloge seemed confused by her treatment.
"I feel so good and so happy towards the Observer for the fund but I don't know why the government doesn't bring any money for me. It is the first time that ever that [anyone has brought] an Olympic medal to Samoa."
16 secs
Mata'afa Keni Lesa says Opeloge's impact cannot be overstated.
"The beautiful thing about Ele's story is that she comes from a very humble family. Her parents are vendors, they sell vegetables on the side of the road. She also herself sold vegetables. From there to win an Olympic medal, it is a massive achievement. The young kids are looking at Ele, going 'if she can do it then we can do it as well'."
The Sports Minister Loau Keneti Sio says he is proud of the achievement and the government will review its stance in the future.
"We are looking at putting a paper again and revisit that policy, whether we can put in place the ranking of the Games, so that we can have an idea which particular Games and which medal that we're supposed to be rewarding to the athletes. If we can revisit that again that would be a good solution."
Loau personally contributed to the Observer Fund for Opeloge.
