Decorated sprinter Andre De Grasse and Olympic weightlifting champion Maude Charron will carry Canada's flag in the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Friday.Frank Gunn, Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Two Olympic champions have been chosen as Canada’s flag bearers at the hotly anticipated opening ceremony to kick off the Paris Olympics.
Sprinter Andre De Grasse and weightlifter Maude Charron, who both earned gold at the Tokyo Olympics, will lead Canada’s team on Friday for the opening festivities in the French capital, an unprecedented event in which Olympians will float down the Seine on boats.
De Grasse, entering his third Games, is Canada’s most decorated male summer Olympian, with six medals. He won three each at the Rio and Tokyo Games across the men’s 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100-metre relay events. He is the reigning Olympic champ in the 200.
In Charron’s Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, she won gold in the women’s 64-kg weight category, becoming just the second Canadian weightlifter to become an Olympic champion. For Paris, she has had to adapt and compete in the 59-kg weight class because the 64-kg event has been removed from the Olympic program for these Games.
The two athletes had been holding the secret for a week, after receiving a call from by Team Canada Chef de Mission, four-time Olympic sprinter Bruny Surin.
“It’s the perfect combo isn’t it, a mix of strength and speed together to represent the team,” Charron said. “I don’t know enough words to express how I feel about this honour, and to being beside a great athlete like Andre De Grasse … I’m very grateful.”
In his first two trips to the Summer Games, De Grasse didn’t attend the opening ceremony, so this will be a first for the 29-year-old sprinter.
“It’s really kind of exciting feeling for me to be able to not just go, but now have the opportunity to be holding the flag,” De Grasse said. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited. I’m still nervous, I guess. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m just going to embrace it and have some fun.”
The two athletes said they have no details yet on what organizers will expect them to do as flag bearers, or what the ceremony will be like.
The ceremony is set to be a historic show and feature world-renowned entertainment acts. For the first time, the opening ceremony will not be staged inside a stadium. After years of planning, these festivities will take place along the Seine, with athletes floating on boats down the river, weaving through the centre of Paris.
The Parade of Nations will start beneath the Austerlitz Bridge and pass iconic Parisian landmarks before the six-kilometre procession concludes in front of the Trocadéro.
The Canadian Olympic Committee says about 100 of its athletes will take part in the opening ceremony. Canada’s total team in Paris is 338 athletes, but some will arrive later in the Games, or they have chosen not to participate because their competition is set to begin quickly.
Charron offered this bit of advice for her fellow Canadian participants.
“Enjoy the moment,” said the weightlifter. “Put down your phones and take mental pictures.”
Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse is in a good place after an injury-riddled past couple of years. With the Paris Games approaching, the six-time Olympic medalist and reigning Olympic 200-metre champion is looking to add to his collection of medals and stamp his place among the world's best once again.
The Canadian Press