Golfer Shane Lowry and athlete Sarah Lavin will carry Ireland’s flag at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
The high-profile pair have been named as joint flag-bearers for Friday’s ceremony, which will take place along a six kilometre stretch of the River Seine.
Lowry, 37, the 2019 Open champion and Ryder Cup star, said on Team Ireland’s X account: “It’s a huge honour for me and my family.
𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐬 | Paris 2024
“It’s the greatest honour, I’ve ever been given.” 🥹💚
Sarah Lavin and Shane Lowry are our Team Ireland Flagbearers for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony ✨#TeamIreland | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/nisrUyyjRj
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) July 26, 2024
“Anybody who knows me knows how patriotic I am, how much I love Ireland, and how much I love playing for my country.
“I always wear the Irish flag with pride and to get to do something like this is something I’ll remember forever.”
Lavin, like Lowry, is also set to become a two-time Olympian having competed in the 100m hurdles at Tokyo three years ago.
“It’s surreal to be honest,” said the 30-year-old. “The greatest honour I’ve ever been given. To carry the country’s flag, it’s just something you can’t prepare for.
“I’m so grateful for those who’ve trusted me and put me in this position. It’s emotional as well.
“There’s no point lying about that because, you know, there’s a lot of people you’re representing and be on the biggest sporting stage.
“It’s a testament, I guess, to all the hard work and how much you’ve dug deep, not just in the last 12 months but the entire Olympic cycle and in your entire career.
“I’m deeply touched and just so excited to get out there.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here