Who will bear Canada’s flag?
Protocols could alter tradition
Who will carry Canada’s flag Sunday at the Tokyo Summer Olympics closing ceremony?
Think track — or soccer. If tradition holds and it’s to be a gold-medal winner at these Games, you can scratch the following Canadian Olympic champions from early in the fortnight: Swimmer Margaret Mac Neil (women’s 100-metre butterfly), weightlifter Maude Charron (women’s 64kg) and the women’s eights rowers — all of whom already have left Japan and are back home, along with all of their respective sport’s teammates.
Team Canada spokesman Eric Myles, chief sport officer, confirmed as much Thursday with Postmedia.
Canada’s only other gold medallists so far are sprinter Andre De Grasse (men’s 200m, Wednesday) and Olympic-record-setter Damian Warner (men’s decathlon, Thursday). Both are still in Japan. De Grasse and Canada’s men’s 4x100m relay on Thursday advanced to Friday’s final.
Choices for flag-bearer narrowed by virtue of the strict travel protocols put in place by Olympic organizers, because of COVID-19 concerns. Athletes are expected to leave Japan within 48 hours of their last event.
That’s not a hard-and-fast rule, however, according to the Canadian Olympic delegation. Thus, Warner could conceivably remain in Tokyo through Sunday, three days after the decathlete’s last event. Ditto De Grasse and, potentially, any women’s soccer player.
The Canadian women’s soccer team plays for gold on Friday. Should it defeat Sweden then the obvious choice from that squad to be flag-bearer, surely, would be Christine Sinclair — the 38-year-old captain and leading international goal scorer in the history of the sport, man or woman.
An intriguing alternative to Sinclair, however, would be Quinn — the first openly trans, non-binary Olympic athlete ever to win a medal, as Canada is guaranteed to win either gold or silver. The 25-year-old midfielder has started four of Canada’s five games heading into Friday’s championship game, averaging 58 minutes of play.
Otherwise, perhaps another Canadian will win gold on the last three days of competition and put their name in the running.