LPGA player Julieta Granada has been selected to carry the flag for Paraguay during the opening ceremonies of the upcoming Olympics.
Granada, 29, earned her lone LPGA victory as a rookie at the 2006 ADT Championship when she held off Lorena Ochoa. She is currently ranked No. 106 in the world and has made 14 starts this season, with her best result a T-38 finish at the HSBC Women’s Champions.
Granada took to Twitter to announce the news once the vote was official:
I have great news!! Its official I have been selected to carry Paraguay's flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio!!
— Julieta Granada (@JulietaGranada) June 6, 2016
Paraguay typically sends a small contingent to the Olympics. Only eight athletes represented the country at the 2012 Olympics in London, when swimmer Benjamin Hockin was chosen as flagbearer, and Paraguay hasn’t won an Olympic medal since the men’s soccer team took home silver at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
While the vote became official this week, Granada spoke last month at the Kingsmill Championship about the potential opportunity to lead her country into the Olympic stadium.
“I think I will be nervous, but good thing I don’t have to talk, right? I just have to walk, so I think that will make it better, make sure I get my grip right and just walk down,” Granada said. “It’s such a big honor, seriously. It’s something that I think as golfers we never even dreamed to have the possibility.”
The Olympic opening ceremonies will be held Aug. 5.
