Livigno (Italy) (AFP) – Four years ago, cross-country skier Franco Dal Farra was Argentina's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, something he experienced as "the greatest honor an athlete can have" and which he will relive on Friday at Milan-Cortina 2026.

First modification: 02/05/2026 - 13:57

"It is a bit of a vindication of these four years of work, that I continue to be one of the leaders of the Argentine delegation in winter sports. I am very happy to have been able to maintain myself at a very good level and see myself recognized again to be the most representative face of the delegation," he said in an interview with AFP.

"Obviously, carrying the flag is the greatest pride and honor there is for an athlete. I will carry it with the maximum respect possible," he noted.

As four years ago in China, alpine skier Francesca Baruzzi was chosen as the albiceleste female flag bearer, but Dal Farra hopes that these Games will be very different as an experience from those then, marked by health restrictions in the face of the covid-19 pandemic.

"I hope that now there will be much more exchange between delegations, more cultural exchange. In those pandemic Games there was a bit of paranoia, totally justified, in the different athletes because we dedicated many hours and many years of our lives to preparing this sporting event. So no one wanted any risk of getting sick or lowering performance. So there was little human treatment," he recalls.

Olympic genes

The Olympic spirit is something that Dal Farra has always had in mind, since he was a child.

In Albertville 1992, his mother Inés Alder and his uncle Guillermo Alder were also Olympians in cross-country skiing and his brother Marco was in the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic Games.

"Having people very close to me who managed to participate in the Olympic Games made me realize that it was possible, that it was not an idyllic dream just for other people, but also for close, palpable, real people. That gave me confidence to know that I was going to be able to," he is proud.

Dal Farra, who initially dedicated himself to rowing before opting for cross-country skiing, was born 25 years ago in San Carlos de Bariloche and does much of his training there, in an Andean mountainous area that in winter allows him to practice his sport and in summer other complementary sports (running, roller skiing, cycling).

Put Argentina on the map

"Mine is not a very traditional sport in Argentina, it is not very popular, so there are no large training groups. It is only the athletes of the national team who train there and many times each one on their own, completely alone, but the place is good," he explains about his Olympic preparation, which he complements with three or four months in Europe to be present in the competitions, he says.

"In recent years I have been consciously trying to make a name for Argentina in the world of skiing. I think we are gaining a little bit of respect from the rest of the countries that already know who I am, that already know that Argentina has a team," he celebrates.

In Beijing, in his three tests in cross-country skiing, his best result was 65th place in skiathlon (15 km+15 km), but now he hopes to show his evolution even though he is aware that he will be far from the first positions.

"A top 50 can be a good number, a good achievement for Argentina, I think it has not been achieved in recent years," he estimated.

His mother Inés had a best result of 49th place 34 years ago in Albertville.

© 2026 AFP

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.