Erin Hamlin Named Team USA Flag Bearer for 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

The United States turned to its luge team to find a flag bearer for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

On Wednesday, Liam Boylan-Pett of NBC Olympics reported luge competitor Erin Hamlin will bear the flag at Friday's opening ceremony and lead 244 American athletes.

"It was a pretty big shock," Hamlin said, per Boylan-Pett. "But it is an honor and a privilege to be recognized by all of Team USA."

Hamlin made American history at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi when she earned a bronze medal.

According to Boylan-Pett, she was the first American to win a medal in Olympic singles luge since it became an official event at the Games in 1964. She was also the first American woman to take home a world championship in luge in 2009.

Her NBC Olympics profile also notes the three medals she captured at the 2017 World Championships were the most of any United States athlete for one year.

The women's singles luge starts on Monday with two runs and continues with the third and medal-determining fourth run on Tuesday as Hamlin looks to parlay her position as the American flag bearer into a medal in the competition.