Who should be Canada’s flag-bearer for the Winter Olympics? | CBC Sports

In theory, choosing who will carry the Canadian flag into an Olympic opening ceremony should be pretty straightforward: just pick someone who has won a medal before and has a good chance to win another. Several Canadian athletes will meet this basic standard at any Games.

In practice, it’s more complicated. Putting aside the politics involved in a decision like this, scheduling is a major headache. Athletes who compete too close to the opening ceremony are usually ruled out so as not to upset their focus. Others might be disqualified because their event starts later in the Games and they haven’t arrived yet. Some just straight-up don’t want to do it. Another wrinkle was added last year when the International Olympic Committee began encouraging countries to name a woman and a man to share the role. And, as with everything else, the pandemic just makes the whole process a little harder.

Which is all to say, the successful candidate is not necessarily the most deserving candidate. Sometimes, the best ability is availability. But let’s pretend for a minute that logistical concerns do not exist. Who, in that case, ought to carry the Canadian flag into the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Friday? Here would be some (but certainly not all) of the worthy candidates to receive the honour when the Canadian team announces its choice(s) on Wednesday at 6 a.m. ET:

Marie-Philip Poulin: No one is more clutch than the captain of the Canadian women’s hockey team. She scored both goals in Canada’s 2-0 win over the United States in the gold-medal game in Vancouver in 2010, potted the late tying goal and the overtime winner in the epic 2014 Olympic final vs. the Americans, and beat them again with another OT goal to win last year’s world championship. In Beijing, Poulin will try to help Canada take the Olympic title back after the U.S. won it in a shootout in 2018. She should have a chance for more heroics as the archrivals are extremely likely to meet in the final again.

Charles Hamelin: The 37-year-old short track speed skating icon can rewrite the Canadian record books as he competes in his fifth, and likely final, Olympic Games. With five medals already under his belt, Hamelin needs one more to match long track speed skater Cindy Klassen for the Canadian Winter Olympic record. A sixth medal would also tie Hamelin with Andre De Grasse as Canada’s most decorated male Olympian. A seventh would put him alongside Penny Oleksiak for most decorated Canadian Olympian ever.

Jennifer Jones: Several of Canada’s curlers would make worthy flag-bearers. Men’s skip Brad Gushue is a strong contender to win his second gold medal 16 years after his first. John Morris is back to defend the Olympic mixed doubles title he won in 2018 with Kaitlyn Lawes. Lawes is going for her third gold medal after adding that mixed doubles crown to her 2014 victory as part of the Canadian women’s team. But let’s go with Jones, who skipped that 2014 squad and is now, at 47, trying to add more gold to a glittering resumé that also includes a pair of world championships and six Scotties titles.

Ted-Jan Bloemen: Canada’s resurgent long track speed skating team looks poised to win a bunch of medals in Beijing. So why not signal that by honouring the only member of the squad to reach the podium four years ago? Bloemen won gold in the 10,000 metres and silver in the 5,000 in Pyeongchang. At 35, he’s a bit old now, but he remains a contender in the long distances.

Marielle Thompson: The 2014 Olympic gold medallist and 2019 world champ is the best bet to keep Canada’s ski cross winning streak alive. Since the sport made its Olympic debut in 2010, a Canadian has won the women’s event every time. Thompson looks capable of becoming the first two-time Olympic ski cross champ ever (men’s or women’s) as she currently ranks third in the World Cup standings and seems fully recovered from a knee injury suffered last March. She’s reached the podium in four of her seven World Cup starts this season, including a victory.

Mikaël Kingsbury: One of the key things to look for in a flag-bearer is the ability to handle the pressure and deliver a medal (preferably gold). It’s a bad look when your pick ends up flopping and missing the podium. Kingsbury, more than anyone else, alleviates that worry. The greatest moguls skier of all time is the reigning Olympic and world champion, is on pace to win his 10th consecutive World Cup men’s title, and is favoured to win gold again in Beijing.

Marie-Philip Poulin is golden on and off the ice as Canada’s captain

When it really matters, you want Marie-Philip Poulin to have the puck on her stick. The Canadian women’s hockey captain is known for being clutch under pressure, but for her teammates, it’s her golden character that makes her shine. 2:51

The Games begin tomorrow morning

Though the opening ceremony doesn’t take place until Friday, competition kicks off Wednesday at 7:05 a.m. ET with the opening draw of the mixed doubles curling event. Canada’s Rachel Homan and John Morris are not among the eight duos in action. They start Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. ET vs. Great Britain.

That game will be the first competition of the Games involving Canadian athletes. Canada’s women’s hockey team hits the ice a few hours later, on Wednesday at 11:10 p.m. ET vs. Switzerland.

We’ll have more on the women’s hockey and mixed doubles curling tournaments in tomorrow’s newsletter, when we start our daily viewing guides. You can stream Wednesday morning’s curling action live on the CBC Olympics website, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

Some other interesting stuff you should know about

The favourite for gold in the women’s monobob tested positive for COVID-19.

American pilot Elana Meyers Taylor is favoured to win the singles bobsleigh event, which is making its Olympic debut in Beijing, and is also a contender to capture her third consecutive medal in the two-woman competition. The 37-year-old, who followed her bronze in 2010 with back-to-back silvers, wrote on Instagram that she’s asymptomatic and “optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly” as she quarantines in a designated hotel room in Beijing. Meyers Taylor has a fair bit of time to produce the negative tests necessary to be cleared to compete. Monobob training runs don’t start until Feb. 10, and the competition begins the night of Feb. 12 in Canadian time zones. The two-woman event starts Feb. 18. Meyers Taylor’s challengers in both events include her good friend and fellow American Kaillie Humphries, the former Canadian-team star who was the runner-up to Meyers Taylor in the World Cup monobob standings this season; and Canadian pilots Cynthia Appiah and Christine de Bruin, who finished third and fourth. Read more about Meyers Taylor’s positive test here.

The Canadian men’s hockey team named its captain. Former NHL star Eric Staal will wear the “C” in Beijing, with David Desharnais and Maxim Noreau serving as alternates. Staal, 37, is the best-known player on the squad. He played in nearly 1,300 NHL regular-season games, notching more than 1,000 points (including 441 goals), and helped the Carolina Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup in 2006. Staal won Olympic gold in 2010 in Vancouver. The Canadian men’s team’s first game is Feb. 10 vs. Germany, a surprise silver medallist in 2018. Canada was scheduled to play its final exhibition today in Switzerland, but the game was cancelled after a player on the Swiss team tested positive for COVID-19.

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