Today it was officially announced that Clara Hughes will be the flagbearer for the Canadian Olympic Team in what can not exactly be called surprising.
It’s not surprising because it is hard to find any fault with the reasoning of naming an athlete like Hughes to lead Canada’s team into the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
And it’s very deserving not only because Hughes had to decline any offers to carry the flag at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin when she came down with illness, but because when you think of the face of Canadian Olympics as a whole Clara Hughes may be one of the few that instantly comes to mind.
An athletic phenom
Clara Hughes is the only Canadian Olympian and the fourth ever athlete in history to win multiple medals in both Summer and Winter Olympic Games, with a Gold, Silver and Bronze as a speed skater and Double Bronze as a cyclist. She also has an impressive list of accolades outside the Olympic Games with multiple medals in the Pan Am Games, Commonwealth Games and a World Championship Medal for cycling. And on the ice she has multiple World Championship medals, World Cup victories and holds the World Record for the 10,000 M Race.
Medal contender
Clara has participated in four Olympic Games thus far in her career, two Summer and two Winter. This will mark her fifth appearance at the Games and at the age of 38 she in not only making an appearance, but she remains a threat to capture a medal once more in speedskating in 2010.
Bolstered by the luxury of home ice advantage the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Winter Games presents a great possibility for Hughes to add another medal to her already impressive trophy case.
There were other athletes nominated for the honour and it’s certainly not fair to say that Hughes was the only choice because all the nominees are very worthy and capable to do the job. However what is fair to say is that our nation’s flagbearer is completely worthy of the task as well as completely deserving of the honour.
Clara Hughes will carry the Canadian colours into the 2010 Winter Games, and rightly so!
Speed skater Clara Hughes chosen to carry Canadian flag at Vancouver Games (The Canadian Press)
Photo Credit: SixFourG on Flickr
Congratulations Clara! Here blog says it all too "It feels like home" http://www.clara-hughes.com/journal/the-transformation
Posted by: Mike Wrobel | January 29, 2010 at 08:05 PM