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Vancouver Now Canadian flag bearer carries burden Home Medals Results Canadian Results Schedule DaytoDay Schedule Athletes Featured Athletes Team Canada Full Athlete List News Venues Forums Blogs Videos Photos The GamesPast & Present Interactive Features SportsCurling Hockey Skating Figure Skating Short Track Speed Skating Skiing Alpine Skiing Biathlon CrossCountry Skiing Freestyle Skiing Nordic Combined Ski Jumping Sliding Bobsleigh Luge Skeleton Snowboarding Hot TopicsCanada vs US Sidney Crosby Hockey gold Closing ceremony Canadian Olympians Joannie Rochette Follow CBCListen to CBCRadio VancouverMultiLanguage BulletinsMandarinRussianArabicSpanishREPUBLISH EMAIL PRINT Text Size S M L XL REPORT TYPO SEND YOUR FEEDBACK Canadian flag bearer carries burdenMaple Leaf can be harder to shoulder than it looksLast Updated Monday December 28 2009 713 PM ET By Bruce Arthur of National Post for CBC Sports Fourtime world champion Kurt Browning was the Canadian flag bearer for the 1994 Winter Olympics but could only manage a fifthplace finish in 1994 Lillehammer Norway (Ron PolingCanadian Press) There will be no shortage of Canadian flags at the 2010 Olympics They will be plastered all over Vancouver and Whistler and likely alongside the winding mountain road in between The Maple Leaf will be splashed on cheeks and on toques hung from lamp posts and in storefronts It will even be raised in full view of the medal podium and more than once or twiceBut only one Canadian flag will be carried into BC Place during the Opening Ceremony after all the other nations have marched in In Beijing the last flag was carried by 7foot6 basketball player Yao Ming and it was a towering masterpiece of symbolism It set the tone for Chinas Games So who should carry the flag for Canada Who will set the toneThe trick of course is this The flag can be harder to carry than it looks Ask JeanLuc Brassard the moguls specialist who bore the flag into Nagano in 1998 finished fifth in his event and blamed the assignment in part for his loss Ask Nicolas Gill the judoku who carried the flag into Athens then fell in the first round and finished 17thAsk Charmaine Crooks Kurt Browning Michael Smith Ken Read All carried the flag all fell well short of expectations Some athletes have defied that record Catriona Le May Doan in 1992 everyone from 1984 to 1992 and notably Brian Orser who won silver in Calgary in 1988 The last winter flag bearer was Danielle Goyette in 2006 in Turin though her gold medal hardly counts for these purposes when womens hockey is usually a twocountry race if thatFlag can weigh down athletesAdam van Koeverden was the last one you would expect to crack yet finished eighth out of nine boats in the 1000metre event at the Beijing Olympics (Ryan RemiorzCanadian Press)But there is a reason that the flag can weigh a...