Carrying a nation’s flag at the Olympics is considered by many to be an incredible honour, and the Iranian delegation entrusted a Hamilton, Ont. area man to be the only representative of their country at the Rio Olympics closing ceremony Sunday evening.
“To me it was just another regular day,” Cam Galindo, a 22-year-old McMaster University political science student, told Global News while recounting the “once-in-a-lifetime” phone call that totally changed his experience as an Olympics volunteer. “‘We nominate you to carry the flag during the closing ceremonies.'”
“At first I was like, ‘Did I hear this right? Was it a communication issue?’” Galindo said.
He said he was asked to carry the flag since it was hard to participate due to the number of hours involved.
For the past month, he has worked as a National Olympic Committee assistant responsible for acting as a liaison between Rio Games officials and the Iran team. Galindo, who speaks English and Spanish, was expecting to be assigned to work with a Latin American country based on languages. However, when he found out he was assigned to work with the Iranian delegation, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to work with the team.
“I considered it a personal challenge,” Galindo said, noting the language differences made it a bit difficult during the first two weeks, but eventually the barriers were broken.
“It got a lot better once we got to know them and built those relationships with them,” Galindo said, adding although the delegates were friendly with him, he said their general approach was more serious and reserved compared to other teams.
Iran ranked 32 at the Rio Games based on total medals won. The team won three gold medals, one silver medal and four bronze medals in weightlifting, wrestling and taekwondo.
After volunteering with the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games in a similar role assisting the Nicaraguan delegation, marching in the closing ceremony wasn’t new to Galindo.
However, the police escort of buses carrying all of the flag-bearers with people waving took him aback.
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“To me this is the closest thing that I’ll ever be to actually being an Olympic athlete,” Galindo said, adding he got to enjoy the experience with a Refugee Olympic team member and delegates from Bahamas and Nicaragua.
Once inside Maracanã Stadium, he said the delegates lined up and waiting for an hour before walking out to the thunderous cheers from attendees.
“Right off the bat going into the stadium the flag started going crazy because of the wind. You could hear the uproar, but I was like ‘Oh my goodness this flag is going to fall,'” Galindo said, adding the heavy medal pole made it difficult to hold on to.
Although the Canadian had to stand alone to represent Iran, Galindo received lots of support online from Iranian citizens to say thanks for standing for their country.
Galindo said the closing ceremony was the highlight of his experience, but as a refugee to Canada when he was seven years old the Rio Games had special meaning for him.
“I was born in Colombia and these were the first Olympics in South America,” he said. “To me it was like these Olympics were being hosted at home, even though it wasn’t home … the cultures were very similar.”
So what’s next for Galindo?
He said he is about to begin his final year at university, but he also wants to continue volunteering and possibly help at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, 2019 Lima Pan Am Games and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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