MINSK, 4 February (BelTA) - Speed skaters Ignat Golovatsiuk and Hanna Nifantava will carry the flag for Team Belarus at the opening ceremony of the 24th Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, BelTA learned from the Team Belarus mission.
"Anna and I are proud to carry the flag for Team Belarus. During the athletes parade we will be very active so that everyone notices our Belarusian flag," Ignat Golovatsiuk said.
Ignat Golovatsiuk is Belarus' national champion and record holder. He made his Olympic debited at the 23rf Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. For Hanna Nifantava, this is the first Olympics in her career. She won a medal at the world university championship, competed in the 500m events at the speed skating world сups. The flag bearers for Team Belarus were: Yevgeny Redkin (1994), Alexandr Popov (1998, 2006), Oleg Ryzhenkov (2002), Oleg Antonenko (2010), Aleksei Grishin (2014) and Alla Tsuper (2018).
In Beijing Belarusian athletes will compete in six sports: biathlon, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, speed skating, figure skating, freestyle skiing. For Belarus, this will be the eighth Winter Games in its sovereign history. Belarus made its debut as a separate team at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Belarusians won three medals (two gold and silver), placing 15th in the overall medal scoreboard. All in all, Team Belarus won 18 medals at seven Winter Games: eight gold, five silver and five bronze medals. The best result was the 8th place in Sochi in 2014 with six medals (five gold and one bronze medals).
