World champion kayaker Caroline Brunet is
Canada's flag-bearer for Sydney

Caroline Brunet after winning the women's K-1 500 metre event at the world canoe championships, Aug. 24. (CP/Andrew Vaughan)

BILL BEACON
Ottawa citizen

MONTREAL (CP) - This time, there was no controversy when Canada announced it's flag-bearer for the Olympic opening ceremonies - Caroline Brunet of Lac-Beauport, Que.

Federal sports minister Denis Coderre was "proud" that the announcement on Tuesday was done in French and English and Brunet was "thrilled" to accept the honour. "It's going to be a night I remember for a long time," said the winner of nine world championship titles in kayaking, and a silver medal in the 500 metre event at the '96 Games in Atlanta. Brunet goes into the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, as a heavy favourite to win two gold medals.

"It's the first time since 1988 I'll be able to go to the opening ceremonies. In 1992 and 1996, we were staying too far away from the Olympic village to go. Now, I can enjoy a full Olympics."

Brunet addressed a news conference at a crowded downtown Roots store, which has supplied the team's ultra-casual uniforms, via satellite from a TV studio in Brisbane, where it was 5:30 a.m.

Although the Games don't begin until Sept. 15, she left early to train on Australia's Gold Coast because "I usually have problems with jet-lag and I didn't want to take any chances.

"And I wanted to focus on training and being away from home will help me do that."

The flag-bearer selection at the 1998 Winter Games was a public relations and athletic disaster.

Barely a word of French was spoken at the announcement and the outrage from Quebec left both the Canadian Olympic Association and the Liberal government in Ottawa red-faced.

Also, the flag bearer in Nagano, freestyle skier Jean-Luc Brassard, only learned of his selection a day before the ceremonies. He later complained that carrying the flag hurt his performance, as his was one of the first events up on the Olympic schedule.

Steps were taken to remedy both problems.

"I am proud today," said Coderre of the COA's new commitment to bilingualism. "Everything is OK now.

"In the last two or three years, we've improved a lot."

And Brunet will have plenty of time to rest after carrying the flag. The preliminary heats for her first event are Sept. 26 and her two races - the 500-metre singles sprint and the doubles sprint with partner Karen Furneaux of Waverly, N.S. - are both on the final day of competition.

Brunet was chosen by a selection committee comprised of former Olympic pentathlete Diane Jones Konihowski, the Canadian team's chef de mission, assistant chef de mission Betty Dermer-Norris, three athletes, a team leader and a coaching representative.

Jones Konihowski said athletes asked that the flag-bearer be named a month before the Games to give the honouree time to get over the emotional jolt and refocus on training for his or her event.

"They asked if we could announce it earlier so you can get the hype out of the way," she said.

Judo heavyweight Nicolas Gill of Montreal said they made the right choice.

"It's a great choice," said Gill. "I don't know who the other candidates were, but she's won so many gold medals at world championships, you can't count them.

"Personally, I think it would be more fun to carry the flag at the closing ceremonies, because that means you did well at the Olympics."

Gill was sporting the new uniform athletes who win medals will wear on the podium - a red-and-white hockey-style jersey with a red baseball cap and platinum-grey pants.

The opening ceremonies uniform features a red-and-white vest over a long-sleeved training jersey - red for men, white for women - with grey pants and a bucket hat.

They're hardly stylish, and the hats look outright goofy on some, but Gill found them appropriate.

"We're normal people, not millionaires" said Gill, who said the clothes are "what we are. We're just 20- or 30-year-old kids."

Some 27 Sydney-bound athletes attended the Montreal news conference and more were at a similar event in Vancouver, where Nigerian-born wrestling world champion Daniel Igali also got to try on the new duds.

"It looks good and it's very comfortable," said Igali, who added with a grin: "Of course, I'm going to say I make it look good."

Canada will send 309 athletes to Sydney, although another five may be added once appeals by borderline selections are considered.

reprinted with permission

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