Thomas Maloney Westgard and Anabelle Zurbay will be the flagbearers for Ireland at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony.<\/p>\n
In line with the commitment to gender equality from the International Olympic Committee, the pair represent experience and emerging talent within the team.<\/p>\n
The ceremony will see events across the four Olympic clusters, with celebration events in Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo, along with the main event in San Siro.<\/p>\n
In Milan the spectators will enjoy an which includes five-time Grammy Award winner Mariah Carey, Golden Globe winner Laura Pausini, as well Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.<\/p>\n
Born to a Galway mother, Norwegian-based cross-country skier Maloney Westgard will carry the flag in the Predazzo cluster, while 17-year-old Zurbay, with family links to Rosemount in Westmeath, will walk in the Cortina cluster.<\/p>\n
Ben Lynch and Cormac Comerford, Ireland’s other two competitors, will both walk in the Livigno athlete parade.<\/p>\n
Maloney Westgaard, who is about to become a three-time Olympian, is proud of the achievement: “To be named an Allianz Flagbearer for Team Ireland is a huge honour.<\/p>\n
“The Olympics are the pinnacle of sport, and to carry the Irish flag alongside Anabelle, is something I\u2019m incredibly proud of and I know I will cherish for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
“I hope we can inspire people back home and show what is possible for Irish athletes, and winter Olympic hopefuls on the world stage.”<\/p>\n
Zurbay, still a student, was shocked by the honour: “It was a big surprise to be asked to carry the flag for Ireland, with Thomas. It\u2019s so exciting to be competing in my first Olympic Games, and to start that experience with such a big opportunity, is really special.”<\/p>\n
Team Ireland leader Nancy Chillingworth said: “Thomas and Anabelle perfectly represent what Team Ireland stands for \u2013 excellence, ambition and balance.<\/p>\n
“From the youngest to the most experienced athlete on the team, they embody the progress of Irish winter sport and the values of the Olympic movement.”<\/p>\n
Team Ireland schedule<\/p>\n
Friday 6 February: Opening ceremony \u2013 Milano (Irish in the Livigno, Cortina and Predazzo clusters)<\/p>\n
Saturday 7 February: Cormac Comerford \u2013 Downhill (Alpine Skiing), Bormio<\/p>\n
Sunday 8 February: Thomas Maloney Westgaard \u2013 10km + 10km Skiathlon (Cross Country), Predazzo<\/p>\n
Wednesday 11 February: Cormac Comerford \u2013 Super-G (Alpine Skiing), Bormio<\/p>\n
Friday 13 February: Thomas Maloney Westgaard \u2013 10km Free (Cross Country), Predazzo<\/p>\n
Saturday 14 February: Cormac Comerford \u2013 Giant Slalom Run 1 & 2 (Alpine Skiing), Bormio<\/p>\n
Sunday 15 February: Anabelle Zurbay \u2013 Giant Slalom Run 1 & 2 (Alpine Skiing), Cortina<\/p>\n
Monday 16 February: Cormac Comerford \u2013 Slalom Run 1 & 2 (Alpine Skiing), Bormio<\/p>\n
Wednesday 18 February: Anabelle Zurbay \u2013 Slalom Run 1 & 2 (Alpine Skiing), Cortina<\/p>\n
Thursday 19 February: Ben Lynch \u2013 Halfpipe Qualification (Freestyle Skiing), Livigno<\/p>\n
Friday 20 February: Ben Lynch \u2013 Halfpipe Final (Freestyle Skiing), Livigno<\/p>\n
Saturday 21 February: Thomas Maloney Westgaard \u2013 50km Classic (Cross Country), Predazzo<\/p>\n
Sunday 22 February: Closing Ceremony \u2013 Verona (All athletes)<\/p>\n
Watch the Winter Olympics with highlights each night and selected live coverage on RT\u00c9 Player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Maloney Westgard and Anabelle Zurbay will be the flagbearers for Ireland at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-279321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}