Going For Gold

Tonight marks the beginning of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada and although the opening ceremony doesn’t start until 9:45pm Atlantic Standard time, I for one will be tuning in. After all, its not every day one gets to cheer for an athlete carrying the flag of your adopted country. I may be a proud American, but when the Bermuda contingent marches through the stadium tonight you-know-who will be hootin’ and hollerin’. So who exactly is representing Bermuda in this year’s Olympiad? That would be the one and only Tucker Murphy, a 28-year-old skier who will compete in the men’s 15k free individual star cross-country ski event (whatever that is, exactly). The Oxford University student is the island’s solo representative, so he alone will be carrying the national flag during tonight’s parade (unlike his compatriot Katie Stevenson, a 15-year-old Bermudian girl who carried the Olympic torch briefly in December). There was a chance the Rhodes scholar would’ve had company, but as has been widely reported in the local press, Bermuda skeleton slider Patrick Singleton didn’t qualify for this year’s event, which would’ve been his fourth appearance at the Winter Games. That means the hopes of an island nation are resting on your sturdy shoulders Tucker. No pressure, now get out there and win gold!