Canada's Flag Bearer

There is no greater Olympic honour than being selected to carry your country's flag at the Opening Ceremonies.  For the 2014 games, the Canadian Olympic Committee has selected Hayley Wickenheiser, from our Women's Hockey team.

I can't argue with the selection.  Hayley is a tremendous Olympian, and possibly the best women's hockey player ever.

Check out her credentials for this honour:

- Selected to Canada's first Olympic Women's Hockey team at age 15 (1998)
- Silver medalist, 1998 Nagano Olympics
- Gold medalist, 2002 Salt Lake City, 2006 Torino, 2010 Vancouver Olympics
- Named Most Valuable Player at the 2002 and 2006 Olympics
- 6 time World Women's Hockey Champions

She is also the first women to score a point in a men's professional hockey game (Finland, 2003), and she was even a member of Canada's Women's Softball Olympic team for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia!  She joins Clara Hughes (flag bearer for the 2010 Vancouver games) as only the second Canadian female athlete to compete in both Summer and Winter Olympic games.

On top of all that, she has been named to the Order of Canada, and is involved with Right to Play (one of my favorite sports organizations).

Here's a list of previous Canadian flag bearers.

Note that the US has not yet selected their flag bearer for the 2014 games.  You can see some of the candidates here!