A former Olympian and Team Canada’s chef de mission says it was the "best moment" telling Canada’s flag-bearers that they would be leading Canadian athletes at the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Games.
"They were very emotional when I had the call with them," Catriona Le May Doan told CTV News. "I was very emotional because I remember 20 years ago when I had that honour."
The Canadian Olympic Committee made the announcement Wednesday with a video of Le May Doan sharing the good news with women's hockey player Marie-Philip Poulin and men's speed skater Charles Hamelin, who both smiled as they accepted the position of flag-bearer.
"I need to pinch myself a little bit," Poulin said in the video.
Le May Doan said selecting the flag-bearers at the Winter Games was a "unanimous" decision by the Olympic committee, and that Poulin and Hamelin were selected because of their outstanding leadership qualities.
"Those are two incredible athletes for what they're doing on the ice, but also what they do off the ice," Le May Doan said. "Their teams have veterans, their teams have rookies, and yet they’ve continued to mentor those athletes. They’ve continued to represent all of the values that Canadians hold dear, the values that Team Canada holds dear."
The journey to get to Beijing has been a challenge for athletes amid the global spread of the Omicron variant in the weeks leading up to the Games.
There will be no global spectators allowed at Olympic events, and Team Canada athletes prepared for the Games by bubbling ahead of time and leaving their families two weeks early.
"The last few years have been difficult for the athletes," Le May Doan said, adding that restrictions have limited the amount athletes could train or compete. "But the athletes have followed all of the guidelines and all of the precautions because they want to be here, they want to represent Canada. And so they've done what they needed to do."
Le May Doan said she will be passing along messages of support to the Canadian athletes, who won't have their families or friends in the stands to root for them.
"We know that everybody at home will be watching," Le May Doan said. "We saw it in Tokyo. The country came together and cheered for the Canadian athletes."
While these Games may feel different because of the restrictions, the chef de mission and former Olympian said that every iteration of the Games is different from the ones that came before.
"Every Games has a spirit," she said. "But I've also reminded the athletes: embrace that spirit, because every Game is different."
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