Australia reveals Matt Graham and Jakara Anthony as flagbearers for Milano Cortina spectacle

Australia have announced their flagbearers for the Milano Cortina 2026 Opening Ceremony.

Freestyle skiing duo Matt Graham and Jakara Anthony will carry the Australian flag in Livigno on Friday (6 February) to open the Olympic Winter Games.

Anthony is the defending women’s moguls champion from Beijing 2022 and arrives in Italy as the world No. 1. Meanwhile, moguls teammate Graham is going into his fourth Games and aiming to build on his PyeongChang 2018 silver medal.

"[As a kid], you probably don't even think flag bearer is a feasible thing," Anthony said in a press conference. "Since I started going to the Olympics and getting more exposure to that, it, I realised how special it was and how much meaning was behind it.

"Until this year it was never even an option for us because we never attended the Opening Ceremony and I still probably wouldn't if that was the schedule, so very fortunate with how things have panned out this time."

The Opening Ceremony will take place in host locations across Italy, centred around the iconic Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium, with live feeds from each venue cluster.

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This will be Graham’s fourth Olympic Winter Games, the 31-year-old targeting success in the men’s dual moguls and the men’s moguls. He and his teammates were sporting the special blazer embroidered with the names of every Australian Winter Olympian.

“It's something that's become a really cool tradition and it just really highlights the history of where we've come from,” said Graham. “We've come from such a small winter nation to now being one of the frontrunners in a lot of disciplines.

“That's really cool and unique and it's probably not something the other teams get to have, and it's something that I'll always be able to show my kids and one day my grandkids, which is pretty cool.”

Team Australia could not have asked for a better setting to unveil their flagbearers, as fresh snow fell onto Livigno’s mountainous landscape and friends from Casa Italia – the hosts’ base – stopped by for the occasion.

The announcement was made in an event presented by Olympic tennis doubles gold medallist Tood Woodbridge and Australia’s Winter Olympic Team Chef de Mission, Olympic aerials gold medallist Alisa Camplin.

With 53 athletes and 30 debut Olympians, this is the second-largest Australian delegation at a Winter Games, 90 years on from the nation’s maiden appearance at Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936.

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