Tuvalu at the Pacific Games similarly rotated on a four-year basis in the intervening years between the main games. A combined Gilbert and Ellice Islands team participated at the 1963, 1966, and 1971 South Pacific Games. An athlete from Tuvalu (then Ellice Islands), namely Nelu Arenga, is at least documented for 1971. Athletes from Tuvalu attended the 2003 South Pacific Games for the first time. Logona Esau was the first athlete from Tuvalu to win a medal at an international competition, when he took bronze at the 2005 South Pacific Mini Games in Koror, Palau. Tuvalu competed at the 2007 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.
Marshall Islands at the 2016 Summer Olympics of their largest Olympic delegations, matching their size in 2008. The delegation, however, failed to win their first-ever Olympic medal. The Marshall Islands are a Micronesian island nation, located in the western Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia. As of 2016 the nation had a population of approximately 53,000. The islands were under Spain's influence until their annexation by Germany in 1885. Japan occupied the Islands during World War I and formally annexed them as part of its postwar South Pacific Mandate. The Marshall Islands were placed under United States control in 1944. The islands granted independence in 1986