Rally ‘round the flag
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BEIJING -- Watching the participating nations parade into the stadium for the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony always provides a mini-geography lesson.
Points if you know where Guinea-Bissau is located -- on the far west coast of Africa, on the Atlantic Ocean -- or that it existed and that it’s not the same as Guinea, Papua New Guinea or Equatorial Guinea. Bonus points for identifying the sport of its flag-bearer, Augusto Midana (the correct answer is wrestling).
Was the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in the geography book you used in grade school? Probably not. It became a sovereign state only in 2002. It’s made up of the eastern half of the island of Timor plus some other small islands.
The human side of the parade is even more fascinating, as delegations consisting of hundreds of athletes or a single person get their turn in the spotlight. The list of scheduled flag-bearers, made public by the International Olympic Committee a few hours before the ceremony, had some familiar names:
* Roger Federer, winner of 12 Grand Slam tennis titles, leading the Swiss delegation.
* Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, playing for his German homeland.
* Alexis Arguello, a three-time world champion boxer and now a politician, carrying the flag of Nicaragua.
* Felix Sanchez, a USC alumnus who won gold in the 400-meter hurdles in Athens and is now coaching at Harvard-Westlake, carrying the flag for the Dominican Republic.
* Andrei Kirilenko of the Utah Jazz, carrying the flag for Russia.
* Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, entering the stadium ahead of host nation China.
Then there are the heartwarming picks.
* U.S. flag-bearer Lopez Lomong, who was one of the ‘Lost Boys’ of Sudan before he was chosen to live with a foster family in New York state. Lomong, a 1,500-meter runner, became a U.S. citizen a year ago.
* Natalie duToit of South Africa, an open-water swimmer who lost the lower portion of her left leg in a scooter accident. She was named to both the Olympic and Paralympic teams.
* Hamzah Al-Hilfi, a rower from Iraq and part of a four-man Iraqi delegation that gained entry to the Games after negotiations with the International Olympic Committee. The IOC had suspended Iraq because of the government’s interference with the national Olympic committee. Part of the agreement called for the election of an independent Iraqi national Olympic committee later this year.
-- Helene Elliott
Update: Photo added at 9:37 a.m. on Friday