The mess that will be solved by the Spanish flag bearer in Paris in 2024

With Cooper there is no doubt. Since his name became a household name, he has always shown his readiness and expressed his pride in being able to carry the flag. But the Oxford-born Spaniard still doesn’t know who will accompany him on that special moment of the ceremony, which, if all goes as the Games organization wants, will take place outside the Olympic Stadium for the first time in history, just as athletes will sail on boats on a voyage across the Olympic Stadium. Seine.

The first candidate, Mayalene Shurro, has already turned down the offer. And not for pleasure. The Basque woman publicly resigned after speaking the next day at the naval stadium in Ver-sur-Mer. “I have been to several Games and was only able to attend the ceremony in Beijing. “I would not forgive myself if, having lived this moment, I sacrificed the result for which I had been preparing for so long,” Lasarte said. There is a lot of work on the eve of the competition, we need to analyze the route together with the team… And rest is a priority,” he said during the presentation of the Olympic canoeing team.

Thus, they began to look for a possible replacement, which according to the protocol should be Carolina Marin thanks to her Olympic gold in Rio. And this is where the problem arises. The first round of badminton is also scheduled for the day after the opening ceremony, with matches starting at 9:20 am.

At the moment, the Council of Europe has not contacted the woman from Huelva, perhaps awaiting a final decision from Maialen, but if they do, they already know that they will have to propose some changes. “For an athlete, it is a dream to carry the Olympic flag,” he explained on Tuesday, precisely at a Council of Europe event. “But it is true that I have to take into account that physically three years ago I broke my second knee and it takes a lot of hours. “I would consider everything if they called me and asked me to be the flag bearer for Spain, but I have to remember that I have eight or nine hours on my feet and that I will perform the next day.”

Marin, who missed the Tokyo Games due to injury, fears that the preparation for the ceremony will eventually take its toll on him, so like Maialen, he also does not want to put his preparation at risk. “I don’t know if I’ll be performing the next morning. If that were the case, it would be very difficult, so I’ll have to look at things a little bit, talk to my team and make sure they take that into account.

“If the Council of Europe could do something to move the schedule to the daytime, there would be fewer problems,” continued the recent winner of the Princess of Asturias Sports Award. “The most important thing is health, if it compromises my ability to achieve my great goal, no doubt I will have a lot of regrets and say no.”

The Council of Europe will have to act and make a quick decision to determine the pair that will take the baton from Saul Craviotto and Mireia Belmonte, Tokyo’s flag bearers. For now, everyone is in doubt.