Time for a woman to carry Australia's flag: Cook

SYDNEY - Former Olympic champion Natalie Cook is adamant that the honor of carrying Australia's flag at the opening ceremony of the London Games should go to a woman. ?

Cook, who won beach volleyball gold on home sand in Sydney in 2000, qualified for her fifth Games by winning a tournament with partner Tamsin Hinchley in China at the weekend.

Given that longevity in the Olympic arena has played a key part in the selection of the athlete nominated to carry the flag at recent Games, Cook could well land the role herself.

"I am ready for the honor if it is bestowed upon me," she told Brisbane's Courier-Mail on Tuesday. "I think it is time for a female. I have walked out behind four males in my four Olympic campaigns.

"Leisel Jones and Anna Meares are obviously contenders but it has got to be a woman as far as I am concerned.

"That would be the cherry on top. It would be the most amazing feeling to lead the team out and carry the flag."

Three-times gold medallist Jones will be the first Australian swimmer to compete in four Olympics when she takes to the London pool, while cyclist Meares has won a gold, a bronze and a silver in her two previous Games. ?

The last woman to carry Australia's flag at the Olympic opening ceremony was diver Jenny Donnet, who led her compatriots into the stadium at her fourth games in Barcelona in 1992.

Since then it has been a male preserve with equestrian rider ?Andrew Hoy (1996), basketball player Andrew Gaze (2000), sailor Colin Beashel (2004) and rower James Tomkins (2008) getting the nod.

Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) chief John Coates earlier this year suggested that cyclist Cadel Evans could carry the flag if he won a second Tour de France, despite not having won a medal at the Olympics.

For the first time since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, however, Coates will not be making the decision himself with the task instead falling to his successor as Chef de Mission, former rower Nick Green.

The opening ceremony of the London Olympics take place on July 27.