A brother and sister who were part of a team that recently participated in the UCI Road World Championships in Australia said they were proud to represent Samoa.

Sponsored by the ANZ Samoa, Urlin and her sibling Gideon Mulitalo told the Samoa Observer of how proud they were to represent Samoa in the international cycling tournament. 

"I feel privileged and honoured to be able to represent Samoa in a sport that isn't common in my environment or in my country, especially being the only local girl in the team," said Urlin.

"However, I hope that my participation in this competition motivates young girls to give cycling a go.” 

Asked what inspired her to get into cycling, Ms. Mulitalo said she always wanted to become a cyclist and to motivate other girls to follow suit and take up the sport.

"Something I want to achieve as a cyclist is to motivate or influence more girls to take part in the sport. 

“As someone who grew up in the arms of triathlon, there were always more male than female and it's the same case with cycling.”

Having participated in the triathlon for a decade, she said she felt “lonely” as the sport wasn’t popular among locals, so she hopes her participation now will change how Samoans view the sport. 

"After approximately 10 years of participating in the sport, I felt lonely being the only local surrounded by palagis so to answer the question, I want to be an advocate in terms of giving future female cyclists a little boost of motivation by continuing to take part in more upcoming competitions and maintaining the legacy of the sport in Samoa.” 

Asked who her role model was, Urlin talked about her early days as a triathlete and how she has never had anyone in the sport that she looked up to or got her motivated. 

"Growing up, I never had someone in triathlon that I looked up to or motivated me to take part in the sport. 

“I've mentioned triathlon quite a bit despite the topic being about cycling but in total honesty, triathlon was my open door into cycling. 

“The only reason cycling was part of the training schedule was because of triathlon, which helped pave my way into the 2022 Road World Championships.” 

Having her brother Gideon as part of the team has also helped, according to the cyclist, who added that he has got more cycling experience than she did.

"Having my brother by my side is a great help in terms of improvements in technique and skills,” Ms. Mulitalo said. 

“He had more experience in cycling than I did so having him yell at me along with my younger brothers who are also developing in the sport, is a good thing in regards to becoming better and pushing myself and a bad thing in terms of boiling my blood.” 

Recalling the first time he represented Samoa as an athlete, Mr. Multalo said it was such an honour to be asked to represent the country.

"It was such an honour knowing that I was given a chance to represent our country,” he said.

“It first came as a surprise and a scare, because of how sudden we were informed about this. 

“But as we continued to prepare in the remaining four weeks we had, I believe our team felt more comfortable for the coming events.”

Mr. Mulitalo said that being a cyclist is a stepping stone for him, in fact one of many stepping stones, that athletes have with more doors opening to championships such as the world championships  

"Well being a cyclist, it is actually one of the many stepping stones we have as an athlete that will hopefully, open more doors and opportunities like this world champs we were involved with in Australia, get new sports gear to help improve our skills, as well as open doors for us as students," he said.

Asked for his role model, Mr. Mulitalo referred to his father, whom he said he looked up to for a variety of reasons including his care for the family’s welfare.

“When you have a hard working day don't give up or you'll get the belt - mentality from the head on your family, it is quite hard to not want to succeed in the things you do to make sure that you have something to give back to the person that helped start your journey as an athlete," he said.

Talking about his sister Urlin, Mr. Mulitalo talked about his responsibilities as the oldest and brother to Urlin and the need for him to exercise his responsibilities. 

"It's not the first time I've travelled to sports related trips with my sister so I am pretty used to having her around,” he told the Samoa Observer. 

“As the oldest, it is my responsibility to look after her wherever we go but if you know my sister she can be a handful. 

"But it really is nice having someone you grew up with there, someone that knows you to cheer you on in this entirely new environment you're facing, and it is a good motivation to keep pushing forward.”

ANZ Samoa Regional Manager Bernie Poort, who took the Samoan team to the world cyclist event, told Samoa Observer that it is important to build Samoa's own home grown athletes when it comes to triathlon and cycling. 

"I think one of the things that is really important for the development of cycling and triathlon here in Samoa is that we continue to build, coach and invest in our very own homegrown athletes," he said.

"As we build the profile of these sports locally and hopefully encourage more kids to participate.”

Mr. Poort also talked about the long association of the Mulitalo family with triathlon and the long-term commitment of both the family and Samoa’s Triathlon and Cycling Clubs. 

"The Mulitalo family have had a long association with swimming and triathlon and Gideon and Urlin are result of not just the families commitment, but the Apia Triathlon and Cycling Club," Mr. Poort said. 

"We are blessed to have two athletes the calibre of Gideon and Urlin and I think what's equally exciting is they have some younger brothers coming through following their path.

"There are also some other families with plenty of talented kids coming through, and with international support from the likes of World Triathlon  and UCI there is no better time to be part of these exciting sports in Samoa. 

“I believe the opportunity to represent your country in sport is an accomplishment you have for life and can always be super proud of that achievement.”