Tokyo 2021: Laura Ludwig and Patrick Hausding carry the German flag | Sports | DW

Laura Ludwig and Patrick Hausding will lead the German Olympic team as flag bearers to Tokyo’s Kasumigaoka National Stadium at the opening ceremony on Friday. The 2016 Olympic Beach Volleyball Champion and European Record-Jumping Champion received the most votes in the public vote of the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) and its media partners. The German national team also voted. “You have to hold the flag, you have the biggest biceps,” Ludwig said, winking toward the house. At the start of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, table tennis player Timo Ball led the team to the stadium.

The 35-year-old Ludwig won the Olympic gold five years ago with her partner at the time, Kira Walkenhurst. In Tokyo it begins with Margarita Kosoch. Hausding has been one of the world class in scuba diving for years. The 32-year-old won the silver medal in the 10-meter synchronized tower jump in Beijing in 2008 and the bronze in 2016 in the 3-meter plank singles.

equal sign

Team USA will also be led by a woman and a man at the opening ceremony: exceptional basketball player Sue Bird and baseball player Eddie Alvarez. The 40-year-old, who is in her fifth Olympics, is the fiancée of Megan Rapinoe, a soccer player who is also deeply committed to politics.

At the helm of the British team, sailors Hannah Mills and rower Mohammed Al-Subaihi will move to Station. The 33-year-old Al-Subaihi, who won the gold medal with four men in Rio in 2016, is the first Muslim to hold the Great Britain flag.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) encouraged all participating teams to assign a woman and a man the task of carrying the national flag at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. The IOC wanted to set an example for gender equality.

In the previous summer and winter Olympics since reunification in 1990, ten men, but only five women, have led the German team to the Olympic Stadium.

sn / ml (dpa, sid, Guardian)