Boxer M.C. Mary Kom and men’s hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh will be flagbearers for India at the opening ceremony of Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to get underway on July 23 .
Wrestler Bajrang Punia will be the flagbearer at the closing ceremony on August 8.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has communicated the decision in this regard to the Organising Committee of the Games.
“It would be a huge huge moment for me given that it is my last Olympics. Who knows I might even get emotionally overwhelmed,” said Mary Kom.
‘Amazing’
“This is amazing, and I am speechless. I think it’s a huge honour to be named the flagbearer for the opening ceremony alongside the incredible Mary Kom," Manpreet was quoted as saying in a Hockey India release.
The country’s lone individual Olympic gold-medallist Abhinav Bindra was the flagbearer at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Gender parity
At its executive board meeting last year, the International Olympic Committee had made provisions for flagbearers from both genders at the opening ceremony.
“The IOC Executive Board also decided that there should be — for the first time ever — at least one female and one male athlete in every one of the 206 teams and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team participating at the Games of the Olympiad,” IOC chief Thomas Bach had said.
