COC taps Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse as closing ceremony flagbearers

The Canadian Olympic Committee announced in at a news conference early Sunday morning in Sochi that gold medallists Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse would carry the Canadian flag into the closing ceremonies Sunday night.

At the start of the conference, a COC spokesman hinted at the likelihood of "flagbearers" which of course opened the door for a lot of possibilities, but ultimately the COC went with Humphries and Moyse, who successfully defended their gold medal from Vancouver in the women's two-man bobsleigh event, overcoming a sizeable deficit with their final run.

With a strong performance by Team Canada, with athletes receiving medals across nine different sports, it was difficult to pin down one or two exemplary performances that evoked the Olympic spirit in Sochi. For London 2012, the COC made an easy decision in selecting Christine Sinclair for her hat-trick in the women's soccer team's near win over the heavily-favoured United States. Back in Vancouver 2010, figure skater Joannie Rochette won a bronze medal despite the death of her mother coming during the games.

So there was certainly no lack of candidates. When thinking of "flagbearers" obviously speed skaters Denny Morrison and Gilmore Junio came to mind. Morrison began a campaign to get some recognition for his teammate Junio after the latter pulled out of the 1000 metres event—Morrison's strongest distance—after Morrison fell during Canadian qualification. Junio wanted to give Morrison his shot and figured it was a better chance for Canada to get a medal, and his hunch proved to be correct. Morrison would wind up winning a silver medal in the event, with Junio looking on from the front row.

Then, there's some historical precedent for controversy in the ice rink. In 2002, the COC gave the closing ceremony flag-bearing honour to Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, the pairs figure skaters who were initially denied a gold medal thanks to some questionable judging before the International Olympic Committee intervened and gave them a second gold medal along with the Russian pair. CBC's Malcolm Kelly suggested an analogue between Salé-Pelletier and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the ice dancing pair who many felt deserved a second gold medal. "This type of choice for flag-bearer could be seen as making a point to the International Skating Union", wrote Kelly.

There were also worthy individual performances. Some athletes, like Alexandre Bilodeau, competing at the beginning of the games, have already gone home, but he would have been an excellent choice given his successful defence of his moguls gold medal from four years ago. Curler Jennifer Jones tore through the field and finished the round robin and playoffs undefeated and won Canada's first gold medal in women's curling since the late, great Sandra Schmirler in 1998. This is all, as Eh Game's Don Landry pointed out, a little over a year after a long knee rehabilitation during which Jones' future career in competitive curling was in question.

Finally, Marie-Philip Poulin likely would have earned the honour had teammate Hayley Wickenheiser not carried the Canadian flag into the opening ceremony. Typically, national Olympic committees like to mix up sports and athletes when deciding on athletes to carry the flag, but Poulin provided the defining moment of the first 15 days of competition for Team Canada with her performance against the United States in the women's hockey gold medal game. Poulin scored the tying goal with 55 seconds to go and the golden goal in overtime.

All told, the fact that Canada didn't have a surefire candidate to carry the flag, but rather many athletes with different cases for different reasons, is a good thing. This is a far cry from 20 years ago when the country would have one or two gold medallists. Canadians are competing in more sports than before, and as Aubut pointed out, Canada was just four medals back in the overall medal standings, compared to 11 in Vancouver. A little bit less gold going around in Sochi, but more silver and bronze for the nation to share, and even coming in unexpected places, such as the alpine where Jan Hudec won the nation's first medal since 1994, and on the speedskating oval, where no Canadian man had medalled in an individual event since 1998.

All told though, bobsleigh is an excellent choice, and represents the first time since Cindy Klassen in 2006 that the Canadian flagbearer(s) in the closing ceremony will do so with gold draped around the neck.