Who ought to be Canada's Olympic flag-bearers? | CBC Sports activities

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Tomorrow morning, the Canadian Olympic crew will announce its flag-bearers for the opening ceremony in northern Italy on Feb. 6. In step with the present Worldwide Olympic Committee tips, Canada will choose one man and one lady to share the function.

So, this raises the basic pre-Olympics query: who ought to carry the Maple Leaf?

In actual life, it is a difficult one due to the numerous logistical points concerned. For instance, some athletes who compete later within the Video games may not arrive till days after the opening ceremony. Others is likely to be within the nation, however their competitors takes place in a far-flung location. And a few would possibly merely not wish to do it, whether or not as a result of stress it places on them or one other private cause.

For as we speak, although, let’s interact in a little bit of fantasy flag-bearer choosing and fake that none of these complicating components exist — everybody on the Canadian crew is in a position and prepared to do it.

Right here, then, are 10 athletes — 5 males, 5 girls — who I believe can be nice selections to hold the Canadian flag:

Éliot Grondin: For me, an excellent opening ceremony flag-bearer is somebody who has received an Olympic medal earlier than and appears more likely to do it once more. The 24-year-old Grondin suits the invoice as he captured two snowboard cross medals in 2022 (silver within the males’s occasion, bronze within the combined crew) and is presently the reigning males’s world champion and back-to-back World Cup title winner.

Ivanie Blondin: One other athlete who gives an awesome mixture of previous efficiency and promising future outcomes, the 35-year-old lengthy monitor velocity skater received a person Olympic silver in 2022 within the girls’s mass begin and captured gold within the crew pursuit with Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais. The trio topped the World Cup standings in that occasion this season, whereas Blondin, a two-time world champion within the mass begin, picked up three solo medals on the tour.

Sidney Crosby: There is no method he really will get the job — Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins play the night time earlier than the opening ceremony. However who could possibly be higher for it than probably the most well-known Canadian athlete at these Video games and the man who scored the Golden Aim in 2010? Crosby, who will as soon as once more function Canada’s captain, and teammate Drew Doughty are going for his or her third Olympic title, which might be probably the most ever by a non-Soviet males’s hockey participant.

Marie-Philip Poulin: The Canadian girls’s hockey star is one other unlikely selection as she already carried the Canadian flag on the 2022 opening ceremony in Beijing with quick monitor velocity skater Charles Hamelin. However hockey is king (and queen) on this nation, so would not or not it’s nice to see a captains pairing of Crosby and Poulin, who will probably be enjoying in her fifth Olympics and is the one hockey participant ever to attain in 4 gold-medal video games.

Mikaël Kingsbury: The moguls GOAT received Olympic gold in 2018, took silver in each 2014 and 2022, owns 9 world titles and only in the near past earned his record-extending a hundredth victory on the World Cup tour. However Kingsbury has by no means been a flag-bearer, and this is likely to be the final likelihood to provide him the honour as he is hinted this will probably be his remaining Video games.

Rachel Homan: The notion of a flag-bearer “curse” is generally a relic of the Nineties and early 2000s, when Canada had some high-profile flops. However, like every good curse, it lingers within the creativeness, and I would not wish to add any extra stress to Homan after she missed the playoffs at every of the final two Olympics. However the back-to-back girls’s curling world champion is a transparent favorite to win gold this time in one in all Canada’s hottest winter sports activities.

Will Dandjinou: The unusually tall quick monitor skater is poised to grow to be one in all Canada’s greatest stars at his debut Olympics. He is dominated the World Tour over the past two seasons, successful back-to-back males’s general titles whereas capturing 4 medals on the 2025 world championships, together with one particular person and two relay golds. The one factor is we could wish to save him for the closing ceremony to honour what could possibly be one other multi-podium efficiency.

Marielle Thompson: Canada’s best ski cross racer received Olympic gold again in 2014 and took silver in 2022. She might’ve been a contender in 2018 too, however a devastating knee damage only a few months earlier than the Video games ruined her probabilities. Now, Thompson is getting back from one other torn ligament in her proper knee — this one suffered final March as she was gunning for her second straight World Cup title and fifth of her profession. It appears like Thompson is rounding into kind after a bronze-medal efficiency final weekend, and her grit and dedication are qualities that each Canadian can admire.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier: So long as we’re choosing two flag-bearers, how a few pair that really work collectively? Gilles and Poirier have received a medal within the ice dance occasion at 4 of the final 5 determine skating world championships, together with back-to-back silvers in 2024 and ’25. That is their third Olympics, they usually’ll be within the hunt for his or her first medal in what could possibly be their remaining season collectively.