Skiers Finn Bilous and Alice Robinson have been named New Zealand flagbearers for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
NZ chef de mission Marty Toomey has revealed the duo will lead the Kiwi contingent into Beijing's National Stadium at the Games' opening ceremony on Saturday morning (NZ time).
Male and female athletes will jointly carry the New Zealand flag at an Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony for the first time, as a result of a recent change in Games regulations.
The pair will carry a single NZ flag between them, as they take part in the parade of nations, following in the footsteps of rugby sevens star Sarah Hirini and boxer David Nyika, who shared the role at Tokyo last year.
Bilous, 22, says it's "unreal" being chosen to join the great Kiwi athletes to have carried the flag at an Olympics.
"I'm extremely proud to be one of our flagbearers and I'll be waving that thing with a massive grin on my face," he says.
"If you look back over New Zealand’s Olympic flagbearers, it's an amazing list of people and I'm super honoured to be adding my name to that list."
Robinson, 20, became New Zealand’s youngest-ever Winter Olympian, when she competed at the last edition of the Winter Olympic Games, PyeongChang 2018.
She will don the traditional Te Māhutonga - the New Zealand team's Kākahu (cloak) - during the entrance.
New Zealand's most prominent medal hopes - Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous - will not attend the opening ceremony.
Sadowski-Synnott will compete in the snowboard slopestyle competition the following day, while Porteous will not have arrived in China from the US.
Join us for live updates of the Kiwis' Winter Olympics events from February 5
