Team USA will be represented this year by a bobsled racer and a speed skater during the Opening Ceremony in Italy later this week.
WASHINGTON — At the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, bobsledder Frank Del Duca and speed skater Erin Jackson will be flag bearers for the United States.
The International Olympic Committee decided in 2020 that national delegations would have two flagbearers — one male, one female — at the opening ceremony at an Olympics, a move to promote gender parity.
For 34-year-old Del Duca, this will be his second Winter Olympics. He previously represented Team USA in Beijing in 2022. At the 2025 IBSF World Championships in New York, Del Duca piloted his team to a fourth-place finish in two-man and four-man bobsled events. But this year he’s hoping for a better performance in Italy.
Jackson has competed in the 2018 and 2022 Olympics. At the Beijing Games, she became the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport, standing on the first-place podium after the Women’s 500m speed skating event. She’s also the first Black woman to medal in speed skating.
The flag bearers were announced Tuesday morning on the “TODAY” show and on Team USA’s social media accounts.
You can watch an exclusive interview with Jackson about her journey to the Olympics here:
How to watch the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
The Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will air on NBC and stream on Peacock and NBC Olympics platforms on Friday, Feb. 6.
Live coverage of the Opening Ceremony begins at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 6. The ceremony is expected to last about three hours. An encore presentation of the ceremony will air in primetime at 8 p.m. ET. on NBC.
The theme of this year’s Opening Ceremony is “Harmony,” creating a symbolic space where “communities come together and transcend boundaries,” according to the Olympics. About 60,000 people are expected to attend the Opening Ceremony, including a U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance.