Flag Bearer
Sean Becker, the captain of New Zealand's curling team, carried the flag for the New Zealand team in both the opening and closing ceremonies. There was some controversy about the later of these, as the position of closing ceremony flag bearer is usually reserved for the best-performed competitor from the country and the curling team had finished last in their competition.
Traditionally the New Zealand team flag bearer at an Olympic games wears a blessed Māori cloak called the Kotahu.
Read more about this topic: New Zealand At The 2006 Winter Olympics
Famous quotes containing the words flag and/or bearer:
“Hath not the morning dawned with added light?
And shall not evening call another star
Out of the infinite regions of the night,
To mark this day in Heaven? At last, we are
A nation among nations; and the world
Shall soon behold in many a distant port
Another flag unfurled!”
—Henry Timrod (1828–1867)
“Just as a person who is always asserting that he is too good-natured is the very one from whom to expect, on some occasion, the coldest and most unconcerned cruelty, so when any group sees itself as the bearer of civilization this very belief will betray it into behaving barbarously at the first opportunity.”
—Simone Weil (1910–1943)