Olympia 2018: Flag bearer in Pyeongchang: Pechstein would like to do it.

Speed skater Claudia Pechstein has confirmed her wish to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) to carry the German flag.”I would like to do it, of course. This is an absolute honour for an athlete and would be pure motivation for me,”she said in Munich on Thursday at the edge of the German Olympic team’s attire.

DOSB President Alfons Hörmann had brought the most successful German participant in the Winter Games (5 Gold/2 Silver/2 Bronze) into play as a possible candidate:”She is certainly one of the most conceivable flag bearers after all she has accomplished and with her special history,”he said on Thursday,”but I do not want to and will not interfere in the proceedings.”.

The flag bearer will be elected for the first time in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 from a list of five candidates nominated by the DOSB. Half of the vote comes from the German Olympic team and half from the audience. One and a half years ago, table tennis ace Timo Boll wore the German flag, and at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, it was the Olympic champion Maria Höfl-Riesch, now three times.