Who can be an Olympic flag bearer?

For three Olympic editions in a row, Uganda’s flag bearers at the widely viewed opening ceremony have come from the swimming federation.
The charismatic Ganzi Mugula carried the flag at the London Olympiad in 2012 and was succeeded by Joshua Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Ahead of Tokyo 2020, Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) announced that the flag bearer would be kept a surprise.

This might have helped the pre-Olympic mood because when Daily Monitor, through UOC’s media liaison Aisha Nassanga, revealed on the morning of July 23 that the flag bearers would be swimmer Kirabo Namutebi and boxing captain Shadir Musa Bwogi, questions immediately arose on why a swimmer was doing the honours for a third time in a row.

It did not help matters that Uganda is still years away from earning a swimming Olympic medal. Although when this query was posted on a swimming social media platform, one member cheekily asked, “Where are the medals from other sports?”
In his capacity as chairman of the athletes’ commission in UOC and president Uganda Olympians Association, Mugula says he “asked the chef de mission (Beatrice Ayikoru) that we have a female this time because only two women in Uganda’s history have carried the National Flag at the opening ceremony.”

Fortunately, Ayikoru’s decision was made easier by the IOC’s request that all countries select both male and female flag bearers.
With the athletics representatives yet to reach Tokyo, Bwogi seemed an obvious choice as captain of the Bombers. The selection headache must have been with the ladies with all three present in the Games Village at the time offering different strengths.

Rower Kathleen Noble was relatively unknown back home but was enjoying a lot of social media popularity ahead of her 2000m single scull heats on the morning of the opening ceremony. However, it is highly unlikely that UOC would have left it that late to find a female flag bearer. 
Bomber Catherine Nanziri would have made a case for herself as Uganda’s first female boxer at the Games but were UOC really going to select two people from the same sport? That left Namutebi, who at 16, is the youngest member of Team Uganda at the Games.

The criteria
SCORE could not immediately reach Ayikoru for a comment but UOC vice president technical and chef de mission of the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022, Moses Mwase, explained the criteria followed.
“Determination of the flag-bearers at major events is often arrived at after consultation by the CDM, who in general terms is often guided by the discipline, age, confidence and congeniality of the athlete. So it is something we take seriously by all means,” Mwase said.
So beyond the ritual, is there is an end game?

In 2008, despite the country having 17 athletes and the Philippines selecting swimmer Miguel Molina to carry their flag, President Gloria Arroyo asked them to reconsider and instead let the popular Manny Pacquiao – fresh from beating David Diaz to the World Boxing Council lightweight title – carry the flag as a “morale booster for the athletes” even though he was not competing at the Games.
Pita Taufatofua, from Tonga, has turned himself into the face of his country’s Olympic flag ‘bearership’ as he sold Tonga culture to the millions of viewers around the world. Taufatofua made his first appearance at the Rio Olympics and went viral when he carried his country’s flag wearing a ta’ovala – a traditional Tongan mat that is wrapped around the waist.

Taufatofua, who went to compete in Taekwondo, covered his exposed upper body in oil that made him shine especially bright among a field of stars in the Maracana.
Two years later, dressed the same way in the freezing temperatures, he graced the Sochi Winter Olympics as his country’s second-ever Winter Olympian having picked up cross-country skiing.

There was no sign of social media fatigue towards his ways when he graced the screens again last Friday.
America, however, seem to see no fuss about the entire ceremony. Their flag bearers were Sue Bird (women’s basketball) and Men’s representative Eddy Alvarez (baseball, though he won a silver medal in short-track speedskating at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics).
“We often look to offer this opportunity to emphasise the significance of national representation at such a high level and to motivate athletes to always aspire to such Games whenever national duty calls,” Mwase said.

When Tibatemwa carried the flag, he was happy to do so on the same day Michael Phelps did the honours for USA. Phelps, who skipped the opening ceremony at his previous four Olympics, was chosen by his teammates to honour his inspirational Olympic career.
“I think flag bearers depict not just where the country should be but where they’re headed. But also, such things are more useful to countries like ours where we still need to shine a light on our sports story,” Tibatemwa said.

“I think with Kirabo, Uganda is trying to depict its sports future through her. While Pacquiao is a great person, great for tourism and clearly Philippines wanted to show how much they had achieved through him.” 
There is certainly no exact criteria to determining who would sell the country’s image better on the day. But there are certainly countries putting thought to how they can forever make an everlasting impression on those watching the ceremony.

Uganda’s flag bearers
Tokyo 2020:     K. Namutebi & S. Bwogi
Rio 2016:     Joshua T. Ekirikubinza
London 2012:     Ganzi Mugula
Beijing 2008:     Ronald Serugo
Athens 2004:     Joseph Lubega
Sydney 2000:     Sunday Kizito
Atlanta 1996:     Mary Musoke
Barcelona 1992:     Fred Muteweta
Seoul 1988:     Patrick Lihanda
Los Angeles 1984:     Ruth Kyalisima
Moscow 1980:     John Munduga
Munich 1972:     John Akii-Bua
Mexico 1968:     Alex Odhiambo
Tokyo 1964;     Peter Odhiambo
Rome 1960:     Francis Nyangweso 
Melbourne 1956:     Benjamin Ndugga

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