Kevin Rolland and Tessa Worley were appointed flag bearers for the French team at the Beijing Olympics (February 4-20) on Wednesday, January 26; they are turning a page on a stronghold of Nordic skiing since 2010.
This male-female duo, based on the Agbegnenou-Aït Saïd pair from Tokyo, is a first for the Winter Games.
Tessa Worley and Kevin Rolland, who aim to lead the French team beyond the record of 15 medals in Sochi and Pyeongchang, succeed the five-time Olympic biathlon champion Martin Fourcade (2018), who has since put his rifle aside.
Tessa Worley (32 years old), who is only missing an Olympic medal in her rich collection, has won 15 World Cup victories and a giant slalom globe in 2017.
The survivor Kevin Rolland (32 years old), bronze medalist in halfpipe at the Sochi Games in 2014, has returned from a serious accident in 2019.
The skier from La Plagne was seriously injured in April 2019, falling more than ten meters while attempting to break the world record for the highest quarterpipe jump. This didn’t prevent him from getting back on skis as early as October 2019 and subsequently taking 8th place at the 2021 World Championships in Aspen, Colorado.
The pair of flag bearers was chosen by a committee composed of two “ambassadors” per federation participating in the Games, each time one man and one woman, elected by the public via social media.
The biathlete and cross-country skier Benjamin Daviet, with six Paralympic medals (including three golds), was appointed flag bearer for the Paralympic Games (March 4-13) by a vote of French para-athletes on the preliminary list for the Beijing Games. He succeeds Marie Bochet, an eight-time Paralympic champion in alpine skiing.
