Canada announces flag bearers for Olympic Opening Ceremony

Canada will have two athletes serving as flag bearers for the Opening Ceremony for Milano Cortina 2026.

The choices come as no surprise, as freestyle skiers Mikaël Kingsbury and Marielle Thompson have been selected to represent Canada.

 

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“They will march with their freestyle skiing and snowboard teammates in Livigno, with the parade of nations also being held in Milan’s San Siro Stadium and the mountain clusters of Cortina and Predazzo simultaneously in the most spread out Games in Olympics history,” CBC Olympics wrote on Instagram.

Kingsbury, 33, has competed in three Olympics to date and is the most accomplished moguls and freestyle skier of all time. He picked up a silver medal in both Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022, while winning gold at PyeongChang 2018. This is expected to be the final Olympic Games he will compete in.

Thompson, 33, has competed in the same three Olympic Games to date as Kingsbury. She won gold in women’s ski cross at Sochi 2014, as well as silver in Beijing 2022. She was unable to medal at PyeongChang 2018, but competed despite being just four months removed from surgery to repair a ruptured ACL and MCL.

“Being asked to carry the Canadian flag is one of the highest honours in my Olympic journey. There are so many amazing athletes to select from, so to be chosen is really kind of unbelievable, but just very special,” said Thompson. “Mikaël and I have been to each Olympics together, and we’re the same age, so we’ve kind of come up together in this sport. I think we’ve definitely got some camaraderie and it’s very cool to be sharing this honour together.”

Live coverage of the Olympic Opening Ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. PT/1:30 p.m. ET. It will be available on CBC, CBC Gem, CBC News Network, Sportsnet, and TSN.

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