Inside the journey of the official Olympic flag few get to see
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Alyssa Roenigk, ESPN Senior Writer
PARIS — It’s been 10 hours since a spectacular explosion of fireworks marked the conclusion of the 2024 Olympic Games, and gate M50 inside Terminal 2 at Charles de Gaulle airport is bustling. Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass sips coffee from a paper cup and chats with members of her staff. LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman poses for photos with Delta Air Lines CMO Alicia Tillman in front of an “Au Revoir Paris” backdrop while more than 60 weary-eyed U.S. athletes, including 17-year-old park skateboarder Tate Carew and two-time Olympic diver Delaney Schnell, begin lining up to board a special flight bound for L.A.
“The LA28 Olympic flag flight is now open for boarding,” an airline representative announces.
As athletes and executives filter past the breakfast buffet and toward the boarding door, most are unaware the flight’s guest of honor is also at the gate, folded neatly inside a mahogany box that’s swaddled in bubble wrap and tucked inside a nondescript black duffel bag. “The best things in life are low-key,” says LA28 deputy security director Robert Pollicino, who is dressed in a black T-shirt, black shorts and white socks and shoes. He picks up the bag and heads toward the line.
For the past 10 hours, the retired FBI supervisory special agent and former VP of security for the National Hockey League has been tasked with overseeing the transport of one of the most historic symbols of the modern Olympic movement, the official Olympic flag, from Stade de France to L.A. The bag — and the flag — has not left his sight. It spent the night in his hotel room on the floor by his bed and traveled with him by van to CDG at 5 a.m. “I didn’t get any sleep, really,” he says.
The formal exchange of the flag between Paris and Los Angeles didn’t happen where most might expect it did. The public handoff during Sunday night’s closing ceremony had all the trappings of the Hollywood production that it was. But that exchange, overseen by Emmy-winning producer Ben Winston, was symbolic.
While Tom Cruise, flanked by hundreds of Olympic athletes, rode a replica flag out of the Stade de France on an electric motorcycle — after Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo handed it to International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, who passed it to Mayor Bass, who carried it to 11-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles, who delivered it to Cruise — backstage, the official handover was taking place in a secure office inside the stadium’s iconic presidential lounge.
That’s where a group of officials from the 2024 Paris and 2028 Los Angeles Games and the IOC gathered in a quadrennial, little-known ceremony to inspect and transfer the official Olympic flag from the Paris Organizing Committee back to the IOC and into the hands of its new stewards for the next four years.
THE OLYMPIC FLAGS most fans see are replicas. There are the larger Olympic flags that are manufactured for each Games, raised and lowered during opening and closing ceremonies and retired after each edition, as well as smaller replicas with multicolored fringe sewn into their borders that more precisely replicate the original. Those are waved during events like the handover segment of the closing ceremony and in photo opps during events like Monday’s flag flight. There is also a separate official Olympic flag used only at the Winter Olympics and an official Paralympic flag.
No protocol surrounds the replicas, while a litany of rules dictates the movement of the official flags from city to city and the exchanges from mayor to mayor in what is known as the Antwerp Ceremony for the Summer Games and the Oslo Ceremony for Winter.
The Olympic flag was designed in 1913 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, who said its five colorful interlocking rings on a white background were meant to symbolize “the five parts of the world from this point on won over to Olympism” and the colors of every flag in the world at the time. The Olympic flag debuted in 1914, when it was flown at Chatsby Stadium in Alexandria, Egypt, and flew over its first Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920. What is believed to be that flag now hangs in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
According to the IOC’s Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, the original ceremonial fringe-bordered Olympic flag that is handed over from city to city is commonly referred to as the “Antwerp flag” because it was presented to the IOC by the Belgian Olympic Committee at the end of the Antwerp Games in 1920. Due to wear on that flag, which was last used at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, it was replaced by the “Seoul flag,” which the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee presented to the IOC in 1985 in advance of the 1988 Games. It is this ceremonial flag, preserved in its box, that is currently handed over behind the scenes from city to city that hosts the Summer Games and is kept and displayed at each host’s city hall. It is this flag, which was last on U.S. soil during the 1996 Atlanta Games, that Pollicino is protecting.
“In a world where it’s so hard for people to remember history, for there to be something everyone can agree is not controversial and has remained a symbol of hope for 100 years is amazing,” says Aaron Lowenstein, associate general counsel for LA28, who also helped to shepherd the flag from the stadium to CDG. “Now it’s coming to Los Angeles, which is an incredible honor for our organizing committee and the city of L.A. It’s hard to put into words. It’s incredibly meaningful.”
POLLICINO BOARDS THE A350-900 and secures the bag inside a storage closet at the front of the plane before taking his seat. Although the responsibility and pageantry are similar, he says transporting the Olympic flag is nothing like ferrying the Stanley Cup, which he helped to do during his tenure with the NHL. “We never handle the flag,” he says. “It’s more delicate than the Cup, which is moved around publicly. This is a museum piece. The Stanley Cup is celebratory. But they’re both iconic.”
With about three hours remaining in the 11-hour, 40-minute flight, Priscilla Cheng, LA28’s senior VP of government and international relations, removes the duffel from the closet and unzips the bag to reveal a mass of bubble wrap. “It’s just a box,” she says. “And it’s not just a box.” She lifts the box overhead and carries it through the aisle to the back of the plane.
There, she carefully removes the bubble wrap to reveal a layer of protective cardboard, which has a yellow sticky note with the word “Olympique” written in pen next to a ribbon of silver duct tape. She removes the cardboard and reveals the mahogany box, which has eight Olympic logos decorating its lid. Some, such as the Atlanta 1996 logo at the center, are etched into the wood, while others, such as the Athens 2004 and Paris 2024 logos, are metal medallions. The bottom of the box is blank, as are its sides. One space remains on the lid. “That looks like as good a spot as any for the LA 2028 logo,” Cheng says, surrounded by flight attendants and photographers.
Sunday evening at the precise time of the on-stage flag transfer during the closing ceremony, Cheng and Pollicino joined the heads of protocol for the IOC and 2024 Paris Games, as well as several witnesses for both organizations, for the Antwerp Ceremony in a room at the stadium’s field level. The box containing the flag was placed on a table in the center of the room and then members of the Paris 2024 delegation donned white gloves and removed the flag, carefully unfolded it and held it up for inspection. The flag, which is roughly 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide, has yellowed over time, but is in remarkably good condition.
“Once we all made sure it was in a good state, they folded it back up, put it in the box and bubble-wrapped it,” Cheng says.
Cheng is a native Angelino, so when the former political advisor and senior counselor to Governor Gavin Newsom signed the first of three copies of the simple, yet official document transferring the flag from Paris to L.A., she felt the magnitude of the moment. “Signing my name felt like taking personal responsibility to make sure we show up for the athletes, the fans and everyone in between,” Cheng says, “and put on the best Games in 2028.”
FLIGHT DL 0291 departs at 11 a.m. Paris time carrying the official flag, the replica that Mayor Bass and Biles held on stage Sunday night — which Bass will depart the plane holding — a copy of the signed handover document and a couple hundred VIP passengers. It’s a one-time-only flight that required a massive amount of planning and choreography. “It’s crazy to think this flight has been a year in the making,” LA28 director of corporate communications Sehrish Sayani says.
“We wanted the flag transfer to be more than protocol. We wanted to make it a moment not just for LA28 staff, and not just for L.A., but for the entire nation,” Sayani says. “It’s the first time the flag was coming back to U.S. soil in nearly 30 years.”
Shortly after departure, Mayor Bass stands at the front of the plane and makes announcements over the PA. She introduces Wasserman and L.A. City Council president Paul Krekorian and lists the 17 sports represented by the Paris Olympians on the flight. “How deeply proud we are of all of you,” Bass says. “You represented the United States — and we won the majority of the medals!” The passengers cheer.
Wasserman introduces USOPC chairman Gene Sykes and CEO Sarah Hirshland and jokes this will be the last calm day for any of them for the next four years. “Let’s enjoy 11 hours of peace and quiet, and when we land, let’s take our first historic picture as the next host of the Olympic Games in 2028,” he says.
A flight attendant then reminds passengers to please refrain from using the WiFi to post photos with the replica flag, which is hanging in the back of the plane across the final row of seats, before Mayor Bass deplanes and has her photo opportunity walking down the stairs and onto the tarmac.
“I’m a little superstitious about that anyway,” Carew says a few hours into the flight. “I’ll wait until we’re off the plane.” When he checked in, an LA28 official informed him that the USOPC selected him and Schnell to deplane with the mayor and Wasserman and represent their fellow Olympians in that photo opp. “Just to be on the flight carrying the flag back is cool,” Carew says. “The fact that I get to interact with it is pretty exciting.”
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, welcome to Los Angeles. The local time is approximately 1:04 p.m.” About 45 minutes later, after each passenger has cleared customs — which happens on board thanks to special approval from TSA — the plane is towed to a Delta Hanger for its official welcome. Hundreds of members of the media and invited guests cheer as the plane, which features the LA28 logo and a Los Angeles-inspired paint scheme with a sunset gradient that fades into a starry night sky and three palm trees representing the three times the City of Angels will have hosted the Olympics, pulls into sight.
The athletes begin gathering their carry-on luggage. Some pull out their Olympic medals and hang them around their necks. A flight attendant escorts Carew and Schnell to the front of the plane to wait for their photo opp.
When the plane is nearly empty, Mayor Bass exits and begins walking down the stairs waving the replica flag that hung in the plane during the flight. Wasserman walks next to her, followed by Carew and Schnell. Governor Newsom greets the group on the tarmac, surrounded by cameras. Mayor Bass then hands the flag to Schnell, who carries it to a group of athletes gathered for a photo in front of the plane. Schnell stands in the center and passes the flag to Wasserman and Governor Newsom, who hold it high.
“It was incredible,” Schnell says later. “It feels unreal holding those rings, which mean a lot to a lot of athletes.” Schnell had the rings tattooed on her right forearm two days after returning home from the 2021 Olympics, something she says she’d been thinking about since she was 12. “The moment my feet touched the pavement, it all hit me,” she says. “It’s happening. The L.A. Olympics are here.”
As Schnell reminisces about the day, Newsom chats with Tillman, Delta’s CMO, while athletes pass the replica flag from person to person and take selfies with the symbol of the Games. Unbeknownst to most, Cheng, Pollicino and Lowenstein walk quietly into the hanger. A blue tote bag hangs from Cheng’s shoulder. Inside, the flag box is wrapped in its protective cardboard layer once again. It’s headed to the LA28 office in Westwood.
Then, on Sept. 12, once the Paralympic flag, which will also be handed over in a formal ceremony, is on U.S. soil, the official Olympic flags will be displayed in an installation at Los Angeles City Hall, the “Seoul flag” presiding for the first time over a city prepping to host its third Games.
