Solution: A Harbinger of the Flags Answer: FOOTBALL
There seems to be a lot of flags in this puzzle, from the title and the fifteen national flags located below the flagpole wordsearch grid. Start by identifying all fifteen countries and trying searching for them in the grid. You will notice that some of the countries are hidden nonlinearly, having certain bends and curves. This, along with all the other flag clues, should hint at using semaphore.
The bottom row also seems to spell out LA NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR, in reference to the 1984 Summer Olympic Games hosted in Los Angeles. Decoding the letters of the semaphore flags gives the clue phrase FLAGBEARER NAMES. From there, you would find the names of the flagbearers for each respective country in the grid.
| Country | Semaphore Letter | Flagbearer Name |
|---|---|---|
| Bahamas | F | COOPER |
| Belize | L | GILLITT |
| China | A | LIBIN |
| Gambia | G | FYE |
| Ghana | B | DJAN |
| Greece | E | MYGIAKIS |
| Guinea | A | DIALLO |
| Honduras | R | SOTO |
| India | E | IQBAL |
| Mali | R | KONTE |
| Nigeria | N | ALLIE |
| Qatar | A | AL-SALEM |
| Spain | M | ABASCAL |
| Togo | E | KOFFI |
| Tonga | S | SANI |
Searching for the flagbearer names in the grid also reveals something interesting, the Olympic Flag itself is hidden in the grid! Take the overlaps at the rings to get the final answer FOOTBALL!
Author’s Notes
This is a rehash of a puzzle idea I had when I was fourteen trying to connect Olympic flagbearers and using semaphore for a non-traditional word search grid. An idea that came up when making it was referencing the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and one of the new sports they were introducing is FLAG FOOTBALL, which would’ve been the perfect answer in hindsight. Through playtesting and drafts, that idea fell out but it’s still evident in this final version. Coincidentally, this puzzle also came out a week before the actual winter Olympic games in Italy, so there’s that connection too!