July 19, 1996
CROOKS TO CARRY COLORS
ATLANTA '96
By KEN FIDLIN
At The Olympics
ATLANTA -- All afternoon things had been happening fast, too fast, and Charmaine Crooks mind had been working overtime. Suddenly, in mid-sentence, the random thought struck her.
"Mrs. Little, my Grade 4 teacher," she blurted out to a perplexed audience of microphones and scribblers. "Oh, I hope she's watching."
So, Mrs. Little, that's an order. Get yourself in front of a TV tonight, because someone, who still thinks enough of you nearly a quarter century later to have you in her thoughts on one of the biggest days of a fine athletic career as a runner, is going to carry the Canadian flag tonight at the opening of the Atlanta Olympics.
"I'm overwhelmed, totally shocked," said Crooks, whose best Olympic moment was a relay silver in Los Angeles. "The flag represents so much not just for me but for all the athletes here.
"There are so many who deserve this kind of honor. It says that the rest of the team believes that I have some of the qualities of a true Olympian and that makes me as proud as anything I've ever accomplished."
The qualities that have made Crooks a favorite daughter of the Canadian Olympic family were no doubt critical.
"I try to do a lot of voluntary work, try to do what's right, try to be a good role model, I try to be able to get across the true meaning of the Olympic spirit. And every once in a while, I run fast."
She has been running since she was six years old, serious about it since 16. She survived the Moscow boycott, thrived at the Los Angeles Games, agonized along with us all in Seoul and endured through Barcelona. She was a prominent member of Canada's track and field community during the drug scandals that followed the Seoul Olympics but, significantly, her name and reputation were never once questioned.
Atlanta is her swan song but in many ways, it means more to her than all the others.
When she won her Olympic 800 berth at the Canadian trials in June, she cried like a baby, overcome by a jumble of emotions.
"As I was running around the track I saw so many of my former teammates who were either coaching or just watching and I realized just how much it meant to me and how much I love it."
The honor of carrying the flag normally goes to an athlete either favored to win gold or who already owns a gold medal, someone who can set the tone of excellence for everyone else. Sylvie Frechette's name had been bandied about until Crooks was announced yesterday.
Crooks has not won gold and, at 33, realistically won't. But she has been such a superior person as a member of five Olympic teams that hers was a selection that met with universal approval.
"Charmaine represents everything that an athlete should aspire to," said Michael Smith, the decathlete who carried Canada's flag to open the Barcelona Olympics. "Really, she represents everything that anyone should aspire to be."
Crooks was born in Jamaica and grew up in Toronto, one of nine brothers and sisters. She sang in the church choir and sings professionally today. As a teenager she worked as a volunteer helping poverty-stricken people in Africa.
Today she works as a track commentator on TV and give of her time to help raise money for breast cancer research.
Crooks made it clear she won't be back, at least as an athlete in 2000.
"Maybe I'll be carrying some broadcaster's flag," she laughed.
She lives now in Vancouver but yesterday asked to be remembered to all her friends, like Mrs. Little who left such a lasting impression, and relatives in West Toronto. As if they needed to be reminded.
The Olympic Games are as much about Charmaine Crooks as they are about Michael Smith or Silken Laumann. Certainly more about her than about the U.S. Dream Team
The spirit that has for a century imbued the Olympic Games with a special aura in its latest incarnation and for thousands of years previously is alive and well in athletes like Crooks.
It would be a major upset if she won a medal in the 800 metres, but when she walks into the Olympic Stadium tonight holding the red maple leaf high,there is no one on Team Canada who will have deserved it more.
And no one more perfectly suited to the job.
