WEST VANCOUVER -- Most of the talk regarding Canada's flag bearer in Sunday's 2010 Olympic Closing Ceremonies has been about figure skater Joannie Rochette, speed skater Clara Hughes or Alexandre Bilodeau, the freestyle skier who won Canada's first ever Olympic home soil gold medal on Sunday, Feb. 14.

The folks at Canada-Snowboard are wondering why nobody's mentioning Squamish's snowboard cross gold medallist Maelle Ricker.

"She'd be a great candidate," says Guy Napert-Frenette, communications manager for Canada-Snowboard, the sport's governing body. "She's local, she dominated her event, she's the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal at these Games and since she won she's made every public appearance she's been asked to make."

Napert-Frenette isn't suggesting the other candidates aren't worthy. Far from it. He'd just like to see Ricker get some consideration.

"We just want to see her included in the mix," he said

This is the third Olympics for Ricker, 31, and one of the pioneers in the sport. In 1998, when the sport made its Olympic debut, she finished fifth in halfpipe. In Turin in 2006, she was 23rd in halfpipe and foruth in snowboard cross after crashing in the final and having to be taken by helicopter from the mountain.

A survivor, she's had eight knee operations.