Rosie MacLennan chosen as Canada's Olympic flag-bearer
Olympic trampoline champion becomes 1st Canadian gymnast to carry flag in opening ceremony
By Benjamin Blum, CBC Sports
Rosie MacLennan, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist in trampoline, will be Canada's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony for the Rio Olympics next month.
The 27-year-old from King City, Ont., won Canada's only gold at the London Games.
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The Rio Games will mark MacLennan's third Olympics. She will become the first trampolinist to carry the flag for Canada at the opening ceremony.
"To lead my country into the opening ceremony makes me feel so proud to be Canadian," MacLennan said in a press release. "I look forward to marching into the Maracana Stadium wearing the maple leaf, flanked by my incredible teammates."
Qualifying for the Games was nearly put in jeopardy last summer, after MacLennan sustained a concussion ahead of the Pan Am Games in Toronto. She persevered, winning her second consecutive Pan Am gold, but elected to scale back her training in order to fully recover.
"I think the toughest part about this whole thing is patience," MacLennan told CBCSports.ca during a training session in November. "I had these plans of what I wanted to do for worlds and, each day that went by and I wasn't able to train to the extent that I wanted to, I had to adapt these plans and have a new way of getting to where I want to be."
MacLennan officially confirmed her spot in Rio with a first-place performance at the Canada Cup in March. She will fill the berth she secured for Canada with her fourth-place finish at the 2015 world championships.
"Rosie went through some tremendous challenges in the past year and she is now back on the right track," said Stephan Duchesne, Canada's high performance director for trampoline gymnastics.
Other Canadian Olympic flag-bearers include:
- 1912 Stockholm: Duncan Gillis, athletics.
- 1920 Antwerp: Archie McDiarmid, athletics.
- 1924 Paris: Hector Phillips, athletics.
- 1928 Amsterdam: Joseph Wright, Jr., rowing.
- 1932 Los Angeles: George Maughan, boxing.
- 1936 Berlin: James Worrall, athletics.
- 1948 London: Robert McFarlane, athletics.
- 1952 Helsinki: William Parnell, athletics.
- 1956 Melbourne: Robert Steckle, wrestling.
- 1960 Rome: Carl Schwende, fencing.
- 1964 Tokyo: Gilmour Boa, shooting.
- 1968 Mexico City: Roger Jackson, rowing.
- 1972 Munich: Doug Rogers, judo.
- 1976 Montréal: Abby Hoffman, athletics.
- 1980 Moscow (boycotted by Canada): Sue Holloway, kayak.
- 1984 Los Angeles: Alex Baumann, swimming.
- 1988 Seoul: Carolyn Waldo, synchronized swimming.
- 1992 Barcelona: Michael Smith, athletics.
- 1996 Atlanta: Charmaine Crooks, athletics.
- 2000 Sydney: Caroline Brunet, kayak.
- 2004 Athens: Nicolas Gill, judo.
- 2008 Beijing: Adam van Koeverden, kayak.
- 2012 London: Simon Whitfield, triathlon.
With files from CBCSports.ca