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Two gold medallists will lead Team Canada during the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Weightlifter Maude Charron and sprinter Andre De Grasse have been appointed by the Canadian Olympic Committee to serve as the country’s flag bearers for Friday night’s opening ceremony.
Charron, who earned gold in the women’s 64kg event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, will be competing in her second Olympics in Paris. She will become the first weightlifter to carry the Canadian flag in an opening ceremony.
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“Fourteen years ago, I was running with the Olympic torch in the streets of Rimouski and I believed it was the closest I would get to Olympism in my life. Today I’m learning I will be a co-flag bearer for our country I’ve represented with honour for the last 10 years,” Charron said in a statement. “Words are not enough to express my gratitude and the joy I feel to be chosen to lead the way for this extraordinary and talent-filled team.”
De Grasse, with six medals, is Canada’s most decorated male athlete at the Summer Games. The 30-year-old has competed in two previous Olympic Games and reached the podium in all six of his Olympic races, including gold in the 200m in Tokyo.
This will be the first opening ceremony for De Grasse. Before he got the good news, he expected to arrive late to the Olympic Village ahead of his first event on Aug. 3 (athletics typically happen in the second week of the Olympics, after swimming).
“I mean, I never thought that opportunity would ever come, you know, because of course being in track and field, we never get a chance to really go to the Opening Ceremony. So I mean, I’m excited just to even go and now to be the flag-bearer for the country! I’m speechless — I’m trying to get the words out,” De Grasse said in a statement.
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“It’s definitely overwhelming, but I’m really pumped up and I’m really excited to try to take that on for the country and bring it home for Team Canada. So thank you. Thank you to everybody that has been part of giving me that opportunity. And I look forward to representing the country to my highest capability,” he added.
De Grasse will be the first track athlete since Charmaine Crooks at Atlanta 1996 to be designated flag-bearer.
Canada is sending a contingent of 337 athletes to the Games, including 22 alternates. More than 60 per cent of the athletes are women.
This will be the second time countries will have two flag-bearers. Starting with the Tokyo Olympics Games, the International Olympic Committee updated its guidelines to allow two athletes — one male and one female — to carry the flag together.
The parade of nations promises to be unlike anything that’s been attempted before. Instead of walking the stage, each delegation will wind their way down the River Seine. Nearly a hundred flotillas carrying more than 10,000 athletes will travel westward along the river. Canada will be 37th in the procession to take the six-kilometer journey, which terminates near the Eiffel Tower.
The Opening Ceremony is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. local time in Paris (1:30 p.m. ET) and to conclude by 5:15 p.m. ET. Canadians countrywide can tune in to CBC or CBC Gem for live coverage of the Opening Ceremony and other sporting events from the comfort of their homes.
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