World

Olympic flag bearers announced

by Yuliya Talmazan | August 7, 2008 at 10:58 am

4405 views | 2 Recommendations | 5 comments

Most of the nations, which will take part in Beijing Olympics, have already announced who their flag bearers will be. All of the selected flag bearers have inspiring life stories, proving that human body and spirit know no limits. Some of the flag bearers, like the US runner Lopez Lomong, are walking miracles. Lomong was kidnapped from his family at the age of six to be conscripted as a child soldier, but he escaped from the military base and fled to Kenya, eventually moving to USA as a refugee. He was granted US citizenship just a year ago. His family considered him dead until very recently.

Other Beijing 2008 flag bearers:

Switzerland—Roger Federer (12-time Grand Slam title holder; will turn 27 on the night of the Opening Ceremonies)
Germany— Dirk Nowitzki (first European-born player in NBA history to get the Most Valuable Player award)
Australia—James Tomkins (will turn 43 during Beijing Olympics, 3-time Olympic Champion)
Great Britain—Mark Foster (will make his 5th appearance at the Olympic Games)
Canada—Adam van Koeverden (Olympic Champion in Athens in 2004)
Japan— Ai Fukuhara (one of the few female flag bearers, entered her first Olympics at the age of 15)
Iran—Homa Hosseini (female representing the Muslim nation of Iran at the age of 19)
Zimbabwe—Mike Fokorani (favourite to win men’s marathon)

Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball sensation and 6-time NBA All-Star, has been named the flag-bearer for the Chinese Olympic Team.

It will be the second successive Olympics that the popular Yao has carried the flag, having performed the duty at Athens in 2004.

Yao has already carried the Olympic torch during its final leg in Beijing and there were reports that he would light the flame at the opening ceremony.

At 7 feet 6 inches, Yao Ming will be easy to spot among Chinese athletes (and probably everyone else on the floor of the Olympic Stadium) on the night of the Opening Ceremonies, making sure the flag of the Olympic host nation is held up high.

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pamela_berry76

at 19:10 on August 7th, 2008

Dirk participated at Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR weekend November 2007. The race was great and it was exciting to see Dirk there as well. He towered over everyone of course you could not miss him in the crowd.

pamela_berry76 has contributed a photo to this story.

JRs GFX

at 20:39 on August 7th, 2008

I've always admired Dirk for his skill and dedication to the sport and I felt like honoring him by making this simple creation.

JRs GFX has contributed a photo to this story.

kferaday

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:21 on August 8th, 2008

yuls.source, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Hadn't heard the story about Lopez Lomong.

agileimages

at 07:09 on August 8th, 2008

I shot this fro the 3rd row of a Mavericks vs Clippers game 12/21/07. Dirk Nowitzki is the best maverick ever and this photo shows his focus, dedication, and determination.

agileimages has contributed a photo to this story.

roonilwazlib (not verified)

at 12:43 on August 8th, 2008

man! why don't they even have pictures!??!? they should have pictures of the olympic flag bearers. didn't know about lopez lomong being flag bearer for U.S. came as kind of a shock...