Olympic stars Mikaël Kingsbury and Marielle Thompson, set to compete in their fourth Winter Games, will be Canada’s flag-bearers for the Feb. 6 opening ceremony in Italy, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced Wednesday.
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.
Canada’s 200-plus member team and athletes from 92 other countries will be dispersed in six Olympic villages across 22,000 square kilometres in Northern Italy.
“I had goosebumps when I heard that I was going to be a flag-bearer,” Kingsbury, the star moguls skier with three Olympic medals and 100 World Cup wins, told Devin Heroux of CBC Sports recently. “One of the best honours in my life. Very proud.”
Kingsbury, 33, will attempt to medal at what he has said will “probably” be his final Olympics. He collected silver in his 2014 debut in Sochi, Russia, won gold in Pyeongchang, South Korea, four years later and took silver in Beijing in 2022, the first men’s moguls skier with three Olympic medals.
The 33-year-old Thompson, a ski cross racer from Whistler, B.C., who won gold in 2018 and silver in 2022, has been working her way back from a knee injury suffered last season.
The opening ceremony will be broadcast live on CBC-TV, beginning with the pre-show at 1:30 p.m. ET. Full coverage will be streamed on CBC Gem and the CBC Olympic website.
Kingsbury and Thompson are the third set of athletes from different sports to earn flag-bearer honours together after the International Olympic Committee made an amendment in 2021 to allow each country to designate a male and female.
Speed skater Charles Hamelin and hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin carried the Canadian flag in the 2022 Olympic opening ceremony.
‘It’s a mega-honour:’ Mikaël Kingsbury named one of Team Canada’s Olympic flag-bearers
Before travelling to Italy, Kingsbury planned a week of training on his home course in Val St-Côme, Que., site of his milestone World Cup win on Jan. 9. He is the only skier to reach 100 victories.
Kingsbury chose to sit out dual moguls the following evening as he continues recovering from a left groin injury first suffered in training last August.
“I’m getting close to being 100 per cent. I know I can win without being 100 per cent,” said Kingsbury, referring to his 2.33-point victory over Australia’s Matt Graham in Val St-Côme. “I’m looking forward to skiing and not thinking about the injury.”
Quebec’s Mikaël Kingsbury captures 100th World Cup victory on home snow
Kingsbury will have two chances to reach the podium in Italy as dual moguls makes its Olympic debut.
The native of Deux-Montagnes, Que., has reached the World Cup podium 143 times over his career, won a combined 29 Crystal Globes between moguls/dual moguls as season champion, and is a nine-time world gold medallist.
Kingsbury is expected to have over 20 family and friends in Italy, including his 17-month-old son, Henrik.
“It would be special to win a medal in front of him. [He wouldn’t] remember, but I would,” Kingsbury told CBC Olympics host Ariel Helwani recently. “I did compete in front of him a few times this year. He’s been my little lucky charm.
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“I’d love to win both events. I’ve done it [three times] at the world championships … and on many occasions in World Cups. I know I have the ability to do it.
“I’ve always been good at the Olympics and very close [to single moguls gold in Beijing],” continued Kingsbury. “I think I should have won gold but it’s [in] the past but I want to win again. I’m hungry.”
Thompson reached the medal podium for the first time this season last Saturday in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, where she finished 1.11 seconds behind winner Daniela Maier of Germany and 43-100ths shy of silver medallist Sonja Gigler for bronze after not completing the race a day earlier.
Thompson has been forced to sit out several races this campaign due to her surgically repaired right knee. She had five podium finishes last season when she was closing in on her fifth World Cup title and second in a row.
“Three [surgeries] on the right knee, it’s been tough,” Thompson told CBC Sports’ Brenda Irving earlier this year. “I’ve learned from these [setbacks] and definitely have come back stronger, physically and probably mentally.”
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Last Feb. 28, Thompson tore the lateral collateral ligament off her right fibula (calf bone) racing in Gudauri, Georgia. She returned to snow in mid-November and raced a month later in Switzerland after missing the season opener in France.
“This [latest] injury and [journey] back [to competition] has been a way bigger challenge than I’ve ever experienced,” she told Heroux. “Each of my injuries … has made me a better athlete, so to be able to lead Canada after overcoming a lot of things this past year is special, and I can’t wait.”
Thompson tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in her right knee just three months before the 2018 Olympics Games but didn’t successfully defend her title, getting knocked out in the first elimination round.
Ten months before the 2022 Beijing games, Thompson tore the same ACL but returned to capture the silver medal.
‘Incredible and special:’ Marielle Thompson named one of Team Canada’s Olympic flag-bearers
Canada has captured a world-leading four gold and seven overall medals since ski cross became part of the Olympics in 2010 in Vancouver.
Almost all of these have come in the women’s event, where Ashleigh McIvor (2010), Thompson (2014) and Kelsey Serwa (2018) won the first three Olympic gold and helped Canada rack up six of the 12 medals awarded to date.
In 2012, Thompson was the first Canadian ski cross racer to win a Crystal Globe. Now, she has four, along with 36 World Cup wins and a 2014 Olympic gold medal.
“I’ve found in my long career when I’m happy, having fun and enjoying the experience, I’m at my fastest,” said Thompson. “I’m hoping I can bring that joy into this [Olympic] experience as well.”
With her 74th podium finish on the circuit last weekend, Thompson ranks second all-time in ski cross. That achievement and walking into Livigno Snow Park on the evening of Feb. 6 will stand together as her fondest memories in the sport.
“Being asked to carry the Canadian flag is one of the highest honours in my Olympic journey,” Thompson said in a statement released by the Canadian Olympic Committee. “There are so many amazing athletes … so to be chosen is kind of unbelievable, but very special.
“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 got some camaraderie and it’s cool to be sharing this honour together.”
