Swimmer Pernille Blume, one of the breakout swim stars of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, has been named the Danish flag bearer for the closing ceremonies on Sunday.
Blume, who entered the meet with no individual long course medals of significance (even at the European Championships) upset a star-studded field to win gold in the 50 free. That gave Denmark it’s only swimming gold of the Olympics and one of only two golds across all sports (with women’s handball being the other) in Rio.
She ended the meet by anchoring Denmark’s medley relay to a bronze, and thus touched the wall for both of the country’s swimming medals of any color.
In total, Denmark comes away from the Olympics with 15 medals – their biggest haul since the 1948 Olympics in London. Swimming specifically did its part to contribute to that improvement – at the most recent London Olympics, in 2012, Denmark had two 4th-place finishes in swimming, but no medals to show for their efforts.
Blume is one of 17 swimmers who will carry their countries’ flags at the closing ceremonies.
The closing ceremonies begin on Sunday at 8:15 PM local time, which is 7:15 PM U.S. East Coast Time, or 1:15 AM Danish time.
The men’s handball team won gold for Denmark
It’s so nice to see all of her dedication and hard work coming into Blume.
She is quite the looker