LONDON -- The last few days before the 2010
Vancouver Olympics swirled past in a flurry for Mark Grimmette.
The luger from Michigan had been chosen to
carry the American flag at the opening ceremony and wondered about protocol.
Instructions came at him from all sides.
Line up here. Walk there. Maintain an even
pace.
And one more thing.
"I had a lot of people tell me,"
he recalls, "you're not supposed to dip the flag."
Most Olympic teams briefly lower their
colors as a sign of respect when they march past the box where the host
nation's leaders are seated. The U.S. does not.
When the Americans pick a flag bearer for
the 2012 London Olympics this week, he or she almost certainly will be advised
to uphold a tradition that dates back more than a century.
According to popular legend, shotputter
Ralph Rose set the tone at the 1908 Summer Games — also held in London — when
he supposedly proclaimed: "This flag dips for no earthly king."
To the rest of the world, it seemed like
blatant nationalism. The truth of the matter, and the history of America's
refusal to dip, is far more complicated than that.
As a professor at Penn State, Mark Dyreson
has devoted a good portion of his academic career to studying the Olympics. He
has written two historical papers on flag etiquette at the parade of nations.
"It sort of becomes a folk tale,"
he said, "a nice romantic mythology."
Piecing together the fragments of this yarn
a century later has not been easy. No one knows for sure why Rose broke from
the accepted practice of dipping in 1908, but Dyreson has his suspicions.
During that era, Irish athletes bridled at
having to compete under Britain's flag. Dyreson believes Rose, an Irish
American, might have been pressured by other Irish Americans on the U.S. team
to make a show of protest before King Edward VII.
If so, this gesture was largely
misunderstood.
"Around the world, there was a lot of
criticism," Dyreson said. "It was considered a sign of ugly
Americanism."
The professor can find no evidence that
Rose, well-known teammate Martin Sheridan or any other U.S. athlete uttered the
"no earthly king" comment. He also points out that it took awhile for
the non-dipping tradition to take hold.
Americans lowered their flag for King
Gustav V at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. They showed no such respect at Antwerp
in 1920 — but those Games were held shortly after World War I, at a time when
nationalism ran high and many of the athletes were still enlisted in the
military.
The saga grew even more curious after that.
Patrick McDonald — the same flag bearer who
held the colors high in Antwerp — surprised everyone by dipping at the 1924
Paris Olympics. Four years later, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, looking to position
himself for a political career, oversaw the American team and demanded that it
follow military regulations.
