Tavevele Noa was the sole male athletic competitor to compete for Tuvalu at the London Olympics at the age of 20. He had not taken part in any previous Olympic Games. Noa qualified for the Games by using a wildcard after competing in an event on Tuvalu's main island and was selected to take part in the men's 100 metres dash. In an interview before the Games he said he was looking to competing in the Olympics and felt nervous but aimed to establish a new personal best time. Noa was drawn in the second heat of the preliminary round on 4 August, finishing sixth out of seven runners, with a time of 11.55 seconds. He finished 72nd out of 76 overall and did not advance to the later stages after being ¾ of a second slower than the slowest athlete in his heat who progressed. After his event he stated: "My race was not good, my aim was to get 10 seconds. The start of my race was good but then when I reached 60 meters, I let it down."