Olympic stars Kingsbury, Thompson chosen as Canada's flag-bearers for Milano-Cortina Games

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 on 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 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.

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.”

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.