Which sportswoman will be second Olympic flag-bearer?
Friday, March 6, 2020 @ 9:25 AM
AN INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee (COI) decision that each country should have two flag-bearers with at least one being female – to boost gender equality worldwide – has sparked speculations in Spain as to who might be picked to join highly-decorated canoeist Saúl Craviotto.
Alejandro Blanco, head of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) reiterated in October that the flag-carrier is always the competitor with the most medals from the Games to their name, meaning that a heated social media debate at around that time was merely academic.
Craviotto has so far won a silver, a bronze and two golds, meaning he automatically qualifies, but in the run-up to the Rio 2016 Games, Spanish sports fans started to clamour for gender equality.
They wanted to see star swimmer Mireia Belmonte carry the flag instead of tennis ace Rafael Nadal, but many others thought should be allowed to go ahead since he was bitterly disappointed to have to pass up on the honour when a knee injury that led to his crashing out of Wimbledon in the first round forced him to scratch from the London 2012 Olympics.
Nadal did, in fact, lead up the opening procession in Rio de Janeiro, and his disappointment four years earlier was cured.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com