If Burnaby soccer star Christine Sinclair was not already Canada's most recognizable female athlete, she is now.
The 29-year-old captain of Canada's bronze-medal-winning women's soccer team led the Canadian athletes into Olympic stadium in London as her country's flagbearer for the closing ceremonies.
It was a fitting tribute to the single most influential player in women's soccer in the country over the past decade, and the unlucky heroine of Canada's heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to eventual gold medallist Team United States in the semifinals at the Games.
Although always reluctant to take the spotlight, it's a responsibility, not unlike the unselfish burden of shouldering the pitfalls and fortunes of the national team for so many years, she has learned so well to carry.
"This a huge honour, and I wish I could have my teammates right here with me," said Sinclair.
"We want the next generation of young girls to dream of being in the Olympics and getting a medal around their necks. If we can instill in them just the belief that this can happen, then we have done our jobs."
For Sinclair, that quest for a medal at a major international competition ended with Canada's improbable 1-0 victory over France and earned the Canadian women's team one of the country's 12 bronze medals at the Games.
It was also Canada's first team medal at the Summer Olympics dating back to the Berlin Games of 1936.
All but broken after Canada's devastating last-place finish at the World Cup last year, Sinclair stayed with the program and under new national team head coach John Herdman helped raise the team's stature to among the world's best.
Leading up to the Games last summer, Sinclair set a new national single season goal scoring mark in international contests with 17 goals.
She added to that total, leading all scorers at the London Olympics with a tournament-best six counters, including the three memorable markers that almost sank the unsinkable American warship in the stuff Hollywood spins into its movie making.
Indeed, Sinclair's smiling face was emblazoned on the front pages of major dailies across Canada after the win over France.
The photo came in stark contrast to the iconic image of Sinclair on her knees and her hands clenched above her head, with her face overcome with the emotion of the moment following that wonderful win over France in Coventry.
"You can't be great until you've achieved something great," Sinclair has said in the past. And this was her crowning moment.
Canadian sports fans apparently agreed, choosing Sinclair as Canada's 2012 athlete of the year in a CBCSports.ca poll.
Sinclair picked up a second athlete of the year award, winning the coveted Lou Marsh award that is named after a Toronto Star sports editor.
Later in the month, Sinclair also earned yet another major press award with The Canadian Press female athlete of 2012 on Dec. 28.
