Team GB prepared as Winter Olympics officially gets underway
Ice dancer Lilah Fear and men’s bobsleigh pilot Brad Hall will be Team GB's flagbearers in tonight's opening ceremony
The 2026 Winter Olympics officially gets underway today as the opening ceremony takes place.
Ice dancer Lilah Fear and men’s bobsleigh pilot Brad Hall have been selected as Team GB’s flagbearers for the competition in Milan and Cortina on Friday.
Fear will carry the flag in the athletes’ parade at San Siro in Milan, becoming the first British ice dancer to do so since Christopher Dean in Sarajevo in 1984.
Hall, who has 30 World Cup medals to his name, will lead the British team out in Cortina as he prepares for his third Winter Games.
While the curling competition is already underway, the opening ceremony marks the official start to the games and is set to feature Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli as part of the celebrations.
Team GB's Winter Olympic hopes
Lilah Fear and partner Lewis Gibson are among Britain's best medal hopes, they won Britain’s first figure skating World Championship medal in more than 40 years when they claimed ice dance bronze in Boston last year, and the pair also finished third at the European Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield in January.
Team GB chef de mission Eve Muirhead praised the “positive influence” of flagbearers Hall and Fear on the whole of the 53-strong squad.
“Not only are they both exceptional athletes, but time and again I have watched them both embrace our ‘One Team’ culture with open arms, supporting and uplifting those around them,” said Muirhead, who skippered Great Britain to curling gold in Beijing in 2022.
“They are truly deserving of the opportunity to lead their team-mates into the opening ceremony and I hope they each feel an immense amount of pride as they soak it all in.”