Ldelegation of USA announced Wednesday the flag-bearers of the Team USA for the Opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. As is a tradition, a man and a woman will carry the flag of each country, which in 2016 were Simone Biles and Michael Phelphs.
For this edition, history is made, since Sue bird She is the first female basketball player to be elected, since now Team USA coach Dawn Staley was elected in 2004. Bird has four Olympic golds in its history and, adding that of Tokyo 2020, she and Diana Taurasi would be the first basketball players to achieve it.
The choice of Alvarez, a player of Cuban descent who already has Olympic experience, but in the Winter Games, being a medalist in short track speed skating.
Eduardo Cortes Alvarez placeholder image, 31 years old and whose parents are Cuban, is the first baseball player to carry the flag of the United States at a groundbreaking ceremony. He was born in Miami, Florida, and baseball was part of his school life, receiving a scholarship to play at St. Thomas University, but he chose the Olympic dream in the speed skating, discipline in which he won the triple crown of skating and was known as “Eddy the Jet “.
In 2009, Alvarez won the 3,000m Junior World Championship and was in the selective to go to Vancouver 2010, but was seventh, affected by a stomach virus that postponed his Olympic dream.
Wear on his knees led him to quit skating, returning to playing baseball at St. Thomas University, despite not having a scholarship, and after a while they discovered that he had 12 tears in the patellotibial tendons of his knees. He underwent surgery in March 2012 and was unable to move for 4 weeks. He planned to quit the sport, but his father urged him to return to the skating team even though he couldn’t climb the stairs without help.
He was improving and in 2013 he was part of the World Cup team, winning gold and silver in the 5,000-meter relays, as well as a bronze in the 500-meter. In 2014 he became the first Cuban-American to make the Olympic team, winning the silver medal in the 5.00 meter relays, recovering from falls in the 1,500 meters, 1,000 meters, 500 meters and in the previous phases of the 5,000 meters, passing thanks to the disqualification of South Korea.
Before the Olympics, Alvarez had mentioned that he planned to return to baseball and did so after Sochi 2014, signing a Minor League contract with the Chicago White Sox, climbing branches before being traded in March 2019 to the Miami Marlins, splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A before being promoted to the Major Leagues on August 3, 2020, debuting on August 5 against the Orioles, although He returned to the branches on September 13 after hitting 7 of 37 in 12 games played.