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Freestyle skiing legend Mikaël Kingsbury and ski cross racer Marielle Thompson are the 27th and 28th flag bearers in Team Canada's Winter Olympics history tonight. They're both veteran Olympic champions, they're both competing in their fourth Winter Games and they're both 33. 

"It's really special to have two freestyle skiers holding the flag for Canada," Thompson said ahead of the ceremony. "To see so many different sports all together as one team is spectacular. I'm really excited to be a part of it."

Some background on the two athletes chosen to lead the big (235 athletes!) American delegation into the opening ceremony.

Speed skater Erin Jackson made history in 2022 when she became the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual sport. In her case, it was in the 500 metres. 

That came after a nice moment of sportsmanship from fellow American skater, Brittany Bowe, who offered her spot in Beijing to Jackson.

Bowe knew that Jackson, who slipped during the race in trials, had a better shot of winning gold. She'll try to bring home gold again from Italy. (Bowe is back this time around, too.)

The other flag-bearer, Frankie del Duca, competes in both two- and four-man bobsleigh. It will be his second Olympic Games. 

The flag-bearers were elected by a group of their American teammates.

The U.S. Vice-president made a brief appearance on the screen. He was also at the U.S. Women's hockey game opener against the Czech Republic earlier this week with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

The U.S. Has already caused controversy at the Olympics for announcing ICE officers would be part of a diplomatic security delegation.

Not only was there a loud cheer for Team Ukraine inside San Siro stadium, many people here rose to their feet and applauded for as long as the team was on stage. 

Chants of “U-S-A” could be heard in the section where we are sitting. A couple of the hospitality suites are also full of people from the United States.

Domen and Nika Prevc are carrying the flag for Slovenia. They became the first brother and sister to win individual ski-jumping World Cup events last year.

Domen, 26, and Nika, 20, both sit atop the World Cup rankings in their sport.

They come from a family of ski jumpers in a country renowned for the sport. Their older brother, Peter, has four Olympic medals in ski jumping.

"It is a really special moment," Domen said about carrying the flag with his sister. "When I first heard about it, I got goosebumps, and when I heard my sister would be with me, it was another level of feeling."

Ski jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang are wrapped up in a pretty weird controversy, and social media refuses to move on. There are claims of some athletes using hyaluronic acid to — ahem — enhance their genitalia to improve performance (no, not that kind of performance, get your head out of the gutter).

But "it might not even be the most bizarre thing to come out of the Olympics," one user wrote on X.

Norway just stepped out. Not only did the team win the most medals in 2022, but it also took home the most gold. The Nordic country also punched well above its weight when you look at medals won per capita. This is likely the result, at least in part, of the fact that it's among the world's richest countries.

Speaking of which, if you take into account a country's wealth and calculate medals won in relation to gross domestic product, Slovenia was able to do the most per dollar of GDP in 2022.

Give Mongolia gold for the best drip, please. Everybody online is still going wild for the team’s much-loved outfits.

Mongolia's uniform was one of — if not the — most anticipated ahead of the opening ceremony. 

The country's team may be small, but it consistently creates buzz for its uniform designs, including at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. 

Taking cues from attire worn in the Mongol Empire from the 13th to 15th centuries, designer Goyol Cashmere says the design was inspired by Mongolia's nomadic people, who have long worn cashmere to endure "the eternal winters of the Central Asian highlands."

A fun moment for Mexican skier Sarah Schleper, who was one of the flag-bearers for her country: she marched in with her son, 18-year-old Lasse Gaxiola, who is making his Olympic debut. 

They’re set to be the first mother-son pair to compete in alpine skiing in the same Olympics.

"That's been really emotional for us," Schleper said earlier this week. "It's a goal we've had for a lot of years, and we fought until the end for the spot, so to get it in the end was a great relief. But it's also been overwhelming, because we kind of feel like it's normal, but we know it's a huge deal and we know it's a huge event.

Schleper started her Olympic career in 1998 in Nagano, when she competed for the U.S. At 46, she's the oldest alpine skier to compete in an Olympic Games.

"My hair's a little grey, that's all,” she said. “I feel good. I'm excited to race and get nervous and put my best out there.”

We saw Jamaica's Winter Games team a little earlier. Jamaica is particularly famous for its bobsleigh teams over the years. 

In fact, this season's four-man team has been so good that they were not allowed to take part in the final Winter Olympics warm-up competition in Lake Placid, N.Y.

They'd just won a hat-trick of gold medals that pushed them higher in the world rankings than their usual spot on the second-tier North American Cup circuit. 

But what spectators might also recall is the 1993 film Cool Runnings, which was inspired by the country's first-ever Olympic bobsleigh team competing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. The film also featured beloved Canadian actor John Candy.

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