America will be represented by a flood of dapper athletes walking into the Opening Ceremony, but only one will have the honor of carrying the US flag, and that's fencer Mariel Zagunis.
She was told recently that the flag would be in her hands walking into the Olympic stadium, and she was filled with one thought—not to mess any of it up. Via the
Boston Herald
:
I’m just going to focus on not tripping, not letting the flag touch the ground and doing everything right.
All that apprehension seems to have melted into excitement, because Zagunis was absolutely ecstatic moments before the Opening Ceremony started. She took to
Twitter
and told the world how it feels to be the flag bearer.
For those uninitiated, Zagunis is a highly decorated Olympian, grabbing the gold in both the 2004 Athens Games and in 2008 in Beijing for Women's Sabre.
NBC Olympics
has a great biography on Zagunis, who won her first gold at 19-years old. She wasn't even supposed to be at the 2004 ...
