Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will make history on Feb. 9, becoming the first woman and man – and first duo, period – to carry the Canadian flag into an Olympic opening ceremony.
Click on the video player above now as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of the Canadian Olympic Committee announce from the House of Commons in Ottawa that the reigning national ice dance champions have been chosen as Team Canada’s flag-bearers in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“Being named flag-bearers for Canada is the highest honour of our careers, and we couldn’t be more grateful to the COC for their belief in us,” Moir said in a statement released by the COC.
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., will lead the Canadian contingent into PyeongChang Olympic Stadium, a 35,000-seat, open-air facility in Hoenggye village.
Canada three times has had two people share flag duties at closing ceremonies:
- Rowers Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle in 1996
- Pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in 2002
- Gold-medal bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyes in 2014
Kurt Browning was the most recent figure skater to carry the Canadian flag at an opening ceremony, in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway.
Hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser was the flag-bearer for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
After becoming the first North Americans to capture Olympic gold for ice dance at the 2010 Vancouver Games, Virtue and Moir finished second overall four years later in Sochi, Russia, behind American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White, along with winning silver in the team event before stepping away from competition for two years.
Virtue, 28, and Moir, 30, will attempt to win at the first-ever Winter Games in South Korea, in what will likely be their final Olympic competition. During their illustrious 21-year career, they’ve also captured three Four Continents championships and several Grand Prix titles.
In October, Virtue and Moir also took gold at Skate Canada with a personal best and world record of 199.86 points in Regina.
Led by the three-time world champions, Canada could have its strongest Olympic figure-skating team in 30 years as ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver, Andrew Poje, Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel (pairs), Patrick Chan (men) and Kaetlyn Osmond (ladies) possess the talent and star power to reach the podium.
Virtue, Moir and their teammates will sport uniforms featuring colour blocks of red and white, plus black. The opening ceremony parka, which falls to the mid-thigh and features “Canada” emblazoned across the chest in bold white lettering, will probably come in handy, along with tuques.
The temperature at the start of the opening ceremony could hover around minus -14 with the wind chill, significantly colder than the wind chill at the ceremonies in Vancouver (5C) and Sochi (4C), respectively.
In November, six people suffered hypothermia at a concert at the pentagon-shaped PyeongChang Olympic Stadium, where there are no built-in heating systems for the seats and corridors.
Each spectator at the opening ceremony is expected to receive a raincoat, small blanket and heating pads to sit on and for their hands and feet.
The two-hour ceremony will follow the same structure as Sochi, featuring the traditions associated with the Olympics such as lighting of the torch and parade of participants.
Opening ceremony schedule
- Entry by head of state.
- Playing of national anthem.
- Parade of participants.
- Symbolic release of pigeons.
- Head of state declares Games open.
- Raising the Olympic flag and playing Olympic anthem.
- Taking of Olympic oath by an athlete.
- Taking of Olympic oath by an official.
- Taking of Olympic oath by a coach.
- Olympic flame and torch relay.
- Artistic program.
Meanwhile, under a proposal the International Olympic Committee will consider next week, North and South Korean athletes could parade together for the first time at an international sporting event since the 2007 Asian Winter Games in China.
The countries are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce.