Bobsleigh pilot Brad Hall and ice dancer Lilah Fear will be Team GB’s flagbearers at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, held this Friday across Milano-Cortina.
Hall, the most successful men’s bobsleigh pilot in British history, will follow in the footsteps of fellow bobsledder Stuart Parkinson, who carried the flag at the 1956 Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The bobsleigh events are to be held in Cortina again 70 years on, with three-time Olympian Hall taking part in the athletes’ parade in the mountain cluster of events.
Fear meanwhile will be the first ice dancer since Christopher Dean in Sarajevo in 1984 to carry the flag, this time in the athletes’ parade at the San Siro Stadium in Milan.
The pair both found out they had been granted the honour on Monday, although in less glamorous circumstances than might be expected.
Fear tells The Independent and other media: “The location was definitely questionable because I was walking into the dining hall, and then I was handed a phone where Eve [Muirhead, Team GB’s chef de mission] asked me if I would accept, and I start crying immediately, but I'm in the middle of the dining hall so I'm trying to find a wall where I can just shake and bawl in privacy! It was super obvious, but I was just flooded with so much emotion and honour and pride.”
Hall meanwhile was stretching in the athletes’ village in Cortina when Muirhead approached him. “I thought something was wrong, and she asked me, have you got time to chat, and I was like, yeah, what is it? It was a quite a flip of emotions, [from] thinking that something's wrong, going to this really joyous news and feeling the honour and privilege of it all.”
Both athletes represent major chances for a medal at this Games. Hall, who competes in the two- and four-man bobsleigh, has 30 World Cup medals to his name, while Fear and partner Lewis Gibson are four-time European medallists and won Britain’s first world ice dance medal in four decades in 2025.
The spread-out nature of the Opening Ceremonies at this year’s Games - with the main event in Milan and smaller parades in other clusters - means Hall and Fear will each be flying the flag solo. It’s a daunting prospect for Fear, who is 5’2” tall and preparing to be dwarfed by the flag, and also unused to doing things as an individual rather than one half of a team. “It’s a little strange,” she says, but adds: “I represent both of us, I wouldn’t be here without Lewis.”
As for the physical act of carrying a huge flag... “I'm strong in what I do on the ice, but I'm not strong at carrying large things, so I don't know what's gonna happen,” Fear says. “I might just have to visualise and hope for the best.”
The flagbearers were under strict instructions to keep the news quiet, something which has been difficult for Fear: “I'm a chatterbox, and it's such exciting news, so I'm proud that I've kept it a secret,” she says. “I was allowed to tell just my parents, and I swore them to secrecy, but I have sisters, my grandma, my best friend, there's so many people I want to tell.”
Hall says: “I have a little ‘Team Hall’ fan group on WhatsApp, so I'll just put out a message telling them what's happened.”
The athletes did however have the chance to say a few words in front of their teammates, including some appearing virtually; Hall even wrote a brief speech. Their teammates’ reactions were overwhelmingly positive - Hall laughs as he says, “They said it was very well deserved, well, maybe some more than others! No, it was received very well.”
Friday will be a busy day for Fear, who is set to compete in the figure skating team event earlier in the day, before heading across Milan to the San Siro in the evening.
Her on-ice practice session is scheduled for 6am, with the competition beginning at 10am, and the 26-year-old plans to stay to watch the rest of the events. “It's a quick turnaround, but I think that vibe is so energising and uplifting that it will be rejuvenating in its own way, and we'll really feed off of that,” she says. “And then maybe if I'm lucky, I'll have an hour to sort my hair out or put some makeup on and then get going, and just enjoy the rest of the evening and let it all in.”
The weather in Milan has been dismal this week and memories are fresh of the most recent Olympic Opening Ceremony, a washout on the Seine in Paris two years ago.
The athletes haven’t heard of any contingency plans should a similar deluge turn the San Siro into a swimming pool. “Maybe we'll get some cute ponchos,” Fear says. “But I think all of us, we won't care if it's raining, it's just going to be this out of body experience where it could be any weather and we'll just be so happy to be there. I'll just pack my hand warmers so that I'm nice and cosy!”
For both athletes the chance to carry the flag is an enormous privilege, and a chance to reflect on their sporting careers so far.
“It exceeds my wildest dreams,” Fear says. “Of course I dreamed of going to the Olympics, but the flag bearer part of that was never even on my radar. I think back to the first Team GB jacket I ever got, and it was probably not even official, I probably just put the flag on a jacket. But I felt so proud when I was a young girl skating at Queen's Ice Bowl in London, and wearing it to school - they were like, ‘That's not the uniform, please take it off’. Then finding the flag in the stadium wherever I'm competing in the world and feeling connected in that way, it is so meaningful.”
Hall said: “It’s a great honour and privilege, especially seeing the calibre of athletes that we've got. To be selected to lead them out onto the Opening Ceremony, it's a bit of a dream come true, to be held in that high regard. Hopefully I can lead by example with this Olympics and inspire some other athletes who are attending their first Olympics to do their best and, perform well.”
Fear is expecting a tear-fest. “I wear my heart on my sleeve, even if I try to not do that, it's impossible, so I'm gonna be fully crying the whole time probably, but I'm gonna let myself feel that dream, and then move on to the next thing.” Hall is “not much of a crier” but is determined to soak in the experience too: “I'm just going to go out there and enjoy it as much as I can, and it's back to business after that.”
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