Flag honour as good as mum’s cooking

JOANY Badenhorst is struggling to find words.

So the Griffith snowboarder talks about seeing her dog again, and taking a bite of her mum’s home cooking. She even throws up the analogy of inviting everyone to your birthday party, then that warm feeling when they all turn up.

“And carrying the Australian flag,” she says finally, “it’s all of that at once . . . amazing.”

Among Australia’s top three medal prospects at the 2018 Winter Paralympics, Badenhorst has also been selected to carry the flag into the opening ceremony.

At 23, she is the country’s first female Winter Paralympian to earn the honour.

And she was told on International Women’s Day.

“Although I think I misunderstood three times,” she said of the conversation. “I was very taken aback.”

The Aussies have a team of 15, a dozen athletes and three sighted guides, competing in both snowboard and alpine skiing, with official competition beginning tomorrow.

Badenhorst was unveiled as the flag bearer at a special ceremony inside the Athletes’ Village yesterday afternoon.

“And I’m still a little overwhelmed,” she said. “It’s an incredibly big honour.

“I don’t think people grasp what it means to an athlete to be able to carry their country’s flag into such an incredible event.

“I had no clue my name was even in the hat to be drawn. Very taken aback.

“But for me it’s really, really special. Because the Paralympics is a celebration of the most incredible things. And carrying the flag, something every athlete aspires to.

“It really hits home what I’m doing, who I represent and why I’m here doing what I do.”