NOTES : BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS

Four months shy of her 40th birthday, Francie Larrieu Smith not only will run an Olympic marathon, she will lead the way for the entire United States team.

Appearing in her fifth Olympics, Larrieu Smith was selected Thursday as the American flag-bearer for today’s opening ceremony.

It is a career-capper for the UCLA graduate, who has never won an Olympic medal.

Larrieu Smith, who lives in Dallas, will lead the 650-member U.S. delegation into the stadium. She was chosen from a field of nominees from 14 sports that included basketball’s Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

This will be the first Olympic marathon for Larrieu Smith, who placed fifth in the 10,000 meters in 1988 at Seoul. In three previous Olympics, she ran the 1,500 meters.

Recently she said: “I’m really the first woman I know who’s going to hit the over-40 masters’ circuit who came up as an age-grouper and never quit.”

Larrieu Smith began running competitively at 13, two years after her brother, Ron Larrieu, had finished 24th in the 1964 Olympic 10,000 at Tokyo.