Usually Amy Peterson is “pretty much toast” by 7 or 8 p.m. because of the chronic fatigue syndrome she battles. But suddenly everything is happening past her bedtime.
The five-time Olympic short-track speedskater from Maplewood, Minn., learned late Wednesday night that her U.S. teammates for the 2002 Winter Games had chosen her to carry the country’s flag and lead the delegation into Rice-Eccles Stadium for the parade of nations. She will have to stay up late again Friday night for the Opening Ceremony.
Peterson, 30, began crying when she was told of the unanticipated role she will play in the Salt Lake Games in front of a crowd of 52,000 spectators and a worldwide television audience.
“I’m really excited,” she said Thursday when the official announcement was made. “I never thought that I would get picked. It’s just the greatest honor.”
The 211 U.S. athletes vote for the flag bearer. While alpine skier Picabo Street campaigned for the honor, Peterson, who has won one silver and two bronze medals in previous competitions, was never mentioned publicly as a prospect.
Patriotism typically plays a significant part in an Olympics, but with the backdrop of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Winter Games being staged on U.S. soil, seldom has so much attention been paid to the American flag.
A tattered American flag in the possession of the Port Authority police of New York that was found by rescue workers at the World Trade Center after the attacks will be part of the ceremonies too. It was announced Thursday that an honor guard of eight U.S. Olympians will be flag bearers: Kristina Sabasteanski, Milford, N.H., biathlon; Lea Ann Parsley, Granville, Ohio, skeleton; Stacy Liapis, Chicago, curling; Todd Eldredge, Lake Angelus, Mich., figure skating; Angela Ruggiero, Harper Woods, Mich., hockey; Mark Grimmette, Muskegon, Mich., luge; Chris Klug, Aspen, Colo.; snowboarding; and Derek Parra, San Bernardino, Calif., speedskating.
Because of the World Trade Center flag’s fragile condition, another flag will be raised during the ceremony. Peterson will carry a third flag–the official U.S. flag during the Games–into the stadium later in the ceremony when she leads the U.S. team in the parade of athletes.
It was also announced that Jim Shea Jr., the third-generation Olympian competing in skeleton, will give the athletes’ oath. Shea, of Lake Placid, N.Y., follows his father and grandfather in the Winter Olympics. Grandfather Jack Shea, a speedskater who was killed recently in an automobile accident, gave the oath in 1932.
Jim Shea Jr. spoke of what the World Trade Center flag means to everyone.
“The flag is so important to so many people,” he said. “It was an attack on me, my family and the world.”
Peterson’s story apparently inspired fellow athletes. For nearly six years she has coped with the exhaustion, headaches, loss of concentration and other symptoms accompanying her illness.
She said she has good days and bad days. Although she compiled more points than any other woman at the U.S. trials and is the team’s best medal hope, she said she doesn’t know how she will feel at the Games.
Peterson, whose Olympic longevity dates back to 1988 when short-track was still an exhibition sport, said she was surprised even to be considered as the flag bearer.
When she phoned home, her mother, Joan, said, “Are you serious?”
Peterson replied, “I wouldn’t make something like that up.”
Peterson’s father, Howard, 62, suffers from a degenerative illness similar to Parkinson’s disease, and Peterson said he has been mustering strength for the trip to Salt Lake City to see her skate. Now, she said, he will also attend the Opening Ceremony.
More than once in the 1990s, Peterson’s health struggles made her consider retirement, but she wanted the chance to skate in an Olympics in the U.S.
“There’s been a lot of days when I just said, `I’ve had enough,'” Peterson said. “And then I knew I would have regretted it. I never thought I would be carrying any flag.”
These Games have not begun, but she said this is already her best Olympics.
