O Canada! Who Will Carry The Flag?

CTV.ca reported that headliner Canadian athletes have been turning down the opportunity to be the flag bearer for the country at the Torino Winter Olympics next month.

A number of Canada's star athletes have refused to carry the country's flag at the opening ceremonies for the Turin Olympics next month, saying they need to focus on their main events.

Duties for opening ceremonies and media interviews can last up to eight hours, and can be a drain on an athlete's time and energy.

Bobsledder Pierre Lueders, cross-country skier Beckie Scott, and speed skaters Clara Hughes and Cindy Klassen have all asked their associations not to nominate them for the ceremonial role.

Scott, an Olympic champion, is scheduled to defend her gold medal in the 15 km pursuit event two days after the ceremony. Her coach told reporters that the skier does not want to put an ounce of energy where it is not "productive."

Officials were looking at competition schedules as part of choosing a person to carry the flag.

There may be something else to all this.

Some athletes are hesitant to carry the flag because of a rumoured jinx that claims whoever carries the flag is bound to fail.

"The curse can be broken and it will hopefully be broken in 2006, if there is a curse," former Olympic skier Tami Bradley laughed.

In 1998, moguls skier Jean-Luc Brassard blamed his poor performance on the fact that he carried the flag in the opening ceremonies at the Nagano Olympics the day before competing.

Speaking on CTV's Canada AM on Thursday, Brassard said carrying the Canadian flag is a great honour. However, it takes a lot of time and energy, and can break an athletes' concentration.

"When you think you have only 20 seconds to justify all those years of training for some sports, or 10 second for other sports, there are absolutely no room at all for any other thought," he said.

"And you want to have your concentration and all your mind at the specific moment that you have to do."

Further in the story, it was noted that,

A look into recent Olympic history shows that flag-bearing isn't always a curse: Doan, the 2002 flag bearer, won speed skating gold.

One way to dismiss that logic is to look at what Bob Beamon said he was doing with his wife the night before his record setting long jump at the 1968 Olympics.

The night before the finals, Beamon had been concerned, his mind going over his personal problems. He had lost his scholarship at Texas El-Paso for participating, with other blacks, in a boycott of a meet against Brigham Young, a Mormon school whose racial policies disturbed them. He also wasn't getting along with his wife.

"Everything was wrong," he said. "So I went into town and had a shot of tequila. Man, did I feel loose. I got a good sleep." (source)

And athletes balk at carrying a flag?