Bobsleigh Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich leads German team into stadium
Beijing (RWH) Skeleton athlete Zhao Dan of China carries the flag of host China into the Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The 19-year-old had finished seventh at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games and celebrated her first victory at the IBSF Intercontinental Cup in Innsbruck (AUT) in the 2021-2022 Olympic Winter.
Leading the German team into the Beijing Olympic Stadium is bobsleigh pilot Francesco Friedrich. The record World Champion is the gold medal favorite in the 2-man and 4-man bobsleds at the 2022 Winter Games. In 2018 in PyeongChang, Friedrich had become Olympic Champion in both disciplines.
Bobsleigh pilot Elana Meyers Taylor was chosen by her team members as the U.S. team's flag bearer. However, the 2015 and 2017 2-woman bobsleigh World Champion and overall winner of the 2021/2022 Women's Monobob World Series was unable to accept this honorable task because she tested positive for the coronavirus and is in quarantine. Her place was taken by speed skater Brittany Bowe as the second-place U.S. athlete.
Skeleton athletes Ander Mirambell (ESP), Nathan Crumpton (American Samoa), Kellie Delka (PUR, women's skeleton), bobsled pilots Benjamin Maier (AUT, 2021 World Cup runner-up in four-man bobsled), Edson Bindilatti (BRA) and Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian of Jamaica, and pusher Andre Marcano (Trinidad and Tobago) have also been selected as flag bearers for the opening ceremony. ©RWH2022
