Olivia Smart and Quim Salarich, Spanish flag bearers in the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Games
The Sheffield-born skater and the Catalan skier lead a delegation of 20 athletes, the largest in history, on a par with the one that went to Sochi.
British born icer dancer Olivia Smart will lead the Spanish team out at the Winter Olympics.
The 28-year-old Dancing on Ice champion, who swapped the Union Jack for the Spanish flag back in 2017, will carry the flag at the glitzy opening ceremony in Milan-Cortina next month.
Smart, who won the 2023 series of the ITV hit show with gymnast Nile Wilson, is part of a record-equalling 20-strong squad flying to Italy for the Games starting on 6 February.
According to the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), which met on Monday at an extraordinary meeting by videoconference to approve the final list, this number of competitors equals the participation in Sochi 2014, the two editions with the largest Spanish delegation in a major winter event.
The Spanish Ice Sports Federation will be represented by seven athletes. Olivia Smart, who will be one of the flag bearers, and Tim Dieck will be making their debut together in an Olympic competition in figure skating dance.
For the figure skater it will be her second Olympic Games as a member of the Spanish Olympic team, while Dieck will be making his debut with Spain, after having participated in Beijing 2022 with Germany.
Sofia Val and Asaf Kazimov will also be making their Olympic debut in figure skating, after a historic qualification. Tomás Guarino will be competing in the in the men's individual competition.
Nil Llop and Daniel Milagros will be the first Spanish athletes to compete in a Winter Olympic event in speed skating. Llop will compete in the 500m, while Milagros will compete in the 1,000m.
The Spanish Winter Sports Federation will be represented by nine athletes in Milan. In alpine skiing, Joaquim Salarich, the second flag bearer, and Arrieta Rodríguez will be there.
In cross-country skiing, Bernat Sellés, Jaume Pueyo and Marc Colell will take part. Finally, Lucas Eguibar and Álvaro Romero will represent Spain in snowboard cross, Queralt Castellet - silver medallist at the Beijing Games - in halfpipe and Nora Cornell in slopestyle and big air.
It should also be noted that the Spanish Federation of Mountain Sports and Climbing will become the first federation with Spanish participation in both summer and winter Olympic Games, thanks to the debut of ski mountaineering as an Olympic sport.
Four athletes will represent the federation: Oriol Cardona, Ana Alonso, Ot Ferrer and María Costa. The first two will compete in both individual and mixed relay, while the other two will only take part in the individual competition.
This list of participants is not definitive, as it could be modified until 26 January due to the reallocation of places, thus increasing the number of athletes who will make up the Spanish Olympic Team, according to the EOC.
"Talent, effort and values".
The EOC praised the choice of Olivia Smart and Quim Salarich as flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony of the Games. "These are two athletes who represent talent, effort and the values of Olympism. They will have the honour of leading the Spanish Olympic team in a very special event," said the president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco.
"It is a pleasure to be able to represent Spain for the third time at the Olympic Games and this year I have been given the news that I am going to be flag bearer, and that fills me with pride", acknowledged Salarich, who comes to these Games "with a maturity in terms of results and skiing that I did not have in the previous ones", on a track that "adapts very well" to his conditions. "I'm going to give 100% of myself", she said.
