Guo named as China's flag bearer for Asian Games finale

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Team China has named the flag bearer for the closing ceremony of the Asian Games on Sunday. Guo Dan, who won the silver medal in the women’s 20-kilometer road race of roller skating on Friday, has been granted the honor.

"It's such an honor. I must be so blessed by the god of good luck," she said after the announcement was made. "Becoming the flag-bearer is a gift and a glory for Olympic athletes but it is more than that for me. I hope that I can encourage and lead more to dream big and challenge the impossible."

Guo, 28, is the first Chinese player to have attended both the Winter Olympics and Asian Games. She competed in the women's mass start speed skating at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in February this year before switching to roller skating at the Asian Games.

Guo Dan competing in the women's 5,000-meter speed skating race of the 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games at Obihiro forest Speed Skating Oval. /VCG Photo

In fact, Guo broke the world record in the women's 500m roller skating race at the Arena Geisingen International in 2014.

Though she is China's first world champion in roller skating, she has never won a gold medal at the Asian Games. Eight years ago in the Guangzhou Asian Games, she took the silver. Four years later, the sport was not listed as an event in Incheon. Then on Friday, Guo again missed the gold by only seven hundredths of a second.

The Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta, where the closing ceremony of the 2018 Asian Games will be held on Sunday. /VCG Photo

Considering that gold winners have carried the flag at the closing ceremony in the past, the selection of Guo came as a surprise. "I felt regret for only winning the silver. When I was told that I was picked to carry the flag, I stayed sleepless the whole night," she said.

Guo left Indonesia's second host city of Palembang on Saturday afternoon for the capital Jakarta to attend the closing ceremony at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium.

(Top picture: Guo Dan in the women's 20-kilometer roller skating race at the 2018 Asian Games. /VCG Photo)