Champion skier Laura Peel and star figure skater Brendan Kerry are Australia’s flagbearers

Beijing: Aerial skier Laura Peel and figure skater Brendan Kerry will carry the Australian flag at the Winter Olympic’s opening ceremony in Beijing, leading the team through one of the most challenging Games in recent memory.

Peel, 32, is a three-time world champion at her third Olympic Games. Kerry, 27, has won the Australian championship eight times and is also competing at his third Games.

The choice of Peel and Kerry came down to the final day before hundreds of athletes march into Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium on Friday night.

Aerial skier Laura Peel (L) and figure skater Brendan Kerry (R) of Team Australia pose with their national flag. Credit: Getty Images Asia Pacific

Australian chef de mission Geoff Lipshut said the choice was a “really difficult” one.

“There are so many factors to consider. All of our athletes are incredible,” he said.

“You consider things like achievements, probably Olympic record, number of Games, leadership quality, the way they interact with the team, with other athletes, so it’s all of those considerations.”

Kerry said he was shocked when Lipshut told him the news.

“I was absolutely speechless when Geoff told me I was going to be a flag bearer,” he said.

“I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I am honoured. I honestly thought he was calling me because there was a big problem.”

Peel said the honour would go at the top of her list of achievements.

“It’s really hard to put into words how it feels,” she said. “Honestly it feels like a dream.”

It is the first Winter Olympic squad to have two flag bearers after Cate Campbell and Patty Mills led the Summer team in Tokyo.

The opening ceremony will take place in Beijing’s iconic stadium, at a reduced capacity due to COVID restrictions and with controversy swirling around it. Human rights groups have condemned the Games as a propaganda exercise for the Chinese Communist Party, which has been accused of abusing the rights of political and ethnic minorities. The Chinese government has rejected those claims as part of a western push to undermine its growing economic power.

Figure skater Brendan Kerry is appearing at his third Games.Credit: AP

On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that some athletes planned on boycotting the opening ceremony in protest over China’s human rights record. Human Rights Groups in Australia have urged athletes in China to keep their political views silent, warning it was not worth the risk after the Beijing Olympic Committee said foreign athletes who broke Chinese restrictions on freedom of speech could face “punishment” under local laws.

In Australia, dissidents will march on the Channel 7 studio at Martin Place on Friday ahead of the opening ceremony as part of a co-ordinated global protest against the Games and its host broadcasters.

The move follows similar developments at the Australian Open where protestors wore “Where is Peng Shuai?” T-shirts to draw attention to the case of the Chinese tennis star who has not spoken to the Women’s Tennis Association since she made sexual assault claims against former Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli in November.

Laura Peel competing in the World Cup event at Deer Valley in January, 2022. Credit: Getty

China’s President Xi Jinping will attend the ceremony along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi , among other world leaders, but representatives from Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom will be missing as part of a diplomatic boycott of the Games.

The opening ceremony will be one of the few chances athletes get to move outside their venue and hotels for the rest of the Games. COVID protocols far stricter than those Tokyo introduced for the Summer Games last year mean that hotels have been walled off behind perimeter fences and Olympic precincts have been locked off from the rest of the community.

Xi told the International Olympic Committee on Thursday that China would do its best “best to deliver to the world a streamlined, safe and splendid Games”.

But organisers are facing rising imported and locally transmitted COVID cases as athletes, officials and media continue to arrive - particularly from the US and Europe.

Brian McCloskey, the chair of the Beijing 2022 medical expert panel, said a total 55 new COVID-infections had been found on Sunday between airport arrivals and the closed loop, the highest number to date.

The COVID restrictions mean the opening ceremony crowd will largely be limited to official attendees and public volunteers and Chinese Communist Party Officials - some of whom may have to serve up to 21 days of quarantine after exiting the Olympic bubble.

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