Bob CollinsIs there a more manufactured moment in all of sports than when a medal winner parades with the American flag? It started, we think, with Bruce Jenner in 1976. Jenner was always criticized as an athlete that seemed to be using the Olympic stage as a marketing opportunity.
It’s usually the skiing, snowboarding, and speed-skating crowd that drapes themselves in the flag. You don’t usually see the figure skaters strutting about with a flag. Why not? Don’t they love America?
If the medal isn’t enough, a flag pose is great for the front page.
Shani Davis (above) shows the proper way to display a flag. Held high, not allowed to touch the ground, and not worn.
“Vail’s own” Lindsey Vonn shows the wrong way. It’s not a shawl.
Snowboarder Seth Westcott unfurled the flag and then wore it. This one had meaning for the kid. It was his grandfather’s World War II service flag.
We don’t know whether this is a trait with curlers, and we’re not likely to find out this year, either — at least with the men’s team. They’re 0-4 now after losing this afternoon to Denmark, 7-to-6..
