MCHS: Olympian Lelei Fonoimoana

by Kevin Cody

Lelei Fonoimoana-Moore competed in the Montreal Olympics in 1976, the same year she graduated from Mira Costa High. She brought home a silver medal from Montreal, after swimming the butterfly for the U.S. 4×100 Medley. And she finished seventh in the individual 100 meter butterfly. 

Her youngest brother Eric credits watching his big sister compete in the Olympics for lighting the fire that would make him a Gold Medalist in beach volleyball in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“We drove from Manhattan Beach all the way to Montreal,” he recalled in a 2000 Easy Reader interview. “There were six of us in a van. We watched her swim and saw some track and field and soccer. I just remember how many fans were there, cheering for whoever was hot. It was just unbelievable,” he recalled.

Fonoimoana-Moore attended Brigham Young University, where she earned 11 all-American honors. 

She competed for the BYU in swimming and diving team. In 1980 she was scheduled to attend her second Olympics, but the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Games. 

Fonoimoana-Moore went on to becoming a Los Angeles County Lifeguards. She retired this year. ER