Celebrated boxer MC Mary Kom and men’s hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh will be the country’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of Tokyo Olympics, the Indian Olympic Association announced on Monday. One of India’s biggest medal hopes, wrestler Bajrang Punia, will be the flag bearer at the closing ceremony on August 8.
The IOA has communicated the decision in this regard to the organising committee of the Tokyo Games. In a first, India is having two flag-bearers — one male and one female — at the upcoming Tokyo Games to ensure “gender parity”.
“It would be a huge moment for me given that it is my last Olympics. Who knows I might even get emotionally overwhelmed,” Mary Kokm told PTI after being named as one of the flag bearers.
The Tokyo Games are scheduled to open on July 23 and over 100 Indian athletes would be gunning for podium finishes at the showpiece, which was postponed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. At its executive board meeting last year, the International Olympic Committee had made provisions for flag-bearers from both genders at the opening ceremony.
