The 19-year-old will lead the parade in Cortina d’Ampezzo

Lara Colturi will be Albania’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The 19-year-old from Piedmont, who chose to compete for Albania when she moved up to the senior ranks three seasons ago, is the daughter of Daniela Ceccarelli, the 2002 Olympic super-G champion in Salt Lake City. This season, Lara has earned four podium finishes in slalom (two second-place and two third-place finishes) and placed sixth in the giant slalom at Kranjska Gora.

Armenia will open the athletes’ parade in Milan with figure skaters Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmann. In Cortina, Colturi will be the first to march, while the Italian flag-bearers will close the parade: Arianna Fontana and Federico Pellegrino in Milan, and Federica Brignone and Amos Mosaner in Cortina.