Speed skater Erin Jackson and bobsledder Frank Del Duca will carry the American flag into San Siro Stadium during the 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday, Feb. 6. The two were chosen through a vote by their fellow Team USA athletes, making them only the second duo to share flag-bearing duties at a Winter Games for the United States.
In 2022, bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor and curler John Shuster were the first pair selected, though Meyers Taylor tested positive for COVID-19 before the Opening Ceremony and was replaced by speed skater Brittany Bowe.
Erin Jackson: From Inline Skating in Florida to Olympic Gold
Jackson, 33, enters Milan Cortina as one of the most decorated active speed skaters in the world. The Ocala, Florida, native made history at the 2022 Beijing Games by winning gold in the women’s 500 meters with a time of 37.04 seconds, becoming the first Black woman from any country to win an individual gold medal at a Winter Olympics. She was also the first American woman to win the 500-meter event since Bonnie Blair in 1994.
Jackson’s path to the ice was anything but conventional. She started inline skating at age 10, spent 15 years competing on wheels, and racked up 12 world championship medals and 47 national titles in roller speed skating. She graduated from the University of Florida in 2015 with an honors degree in materials science and engineering. In 2017, she transitioned to ice skating, and just four months after lacing up her first pair of ice skates, she qualified for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics — where she finished 24th in the 500 meters.
Her 2022 gold medal nearly didn’t happen. Jackson slipped during the U.S. Olympic Trials and finished third. Her teammate and longtime friend Brittany Bowe, who won the event, gave up her own 500-meter spot so Jackson could qualify. Both athletes ultimately competed after an additional spot opened.
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Since Beijing, Jackson has remained dominant, securing back-to-back World Cup titles in the 500 meters during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, winning gold at the 2024 and 2025 Four Continents Championships, and entering Milan Cortina ranked No. 3 in the world in the distance. She qualified for the 2026 Games after recovering from a torn left hamstring just a month before the U.S. Trials, where she won both the 500- and 1,000-meter events.
Jackson will compete in the 1,000 meters on Monday, Feb. 9, and defend her 500-meter title on Sunday, Feb. 15. She is the eighth U.S. speed skater in history to serve as a Team USA Opening Ceremony flag bearer.
Frank Del Duca: Army Sergeant, Bobsled Pilot, Italian American Homecoming
Del Duca, 34, is a bobsled pilot from Bethel, Maine, competing in his second Winter Olympics. He is a sergeant in the U.S. Army and a member of the World Class Athlete Program, which supports soldiers who compete as elite athletes. His full name is Frank Joseph Del Duca IV, and three of his four grandparents were Italian, a detail that makes carrying the American flag at an Italian Olympics particularly meaningful to him.
Del Duca was a multi-sport athlete at Telstar Regional High School, where he won a state championship in alpine skiing. He walked on to the track and field team at the University of Maine, eventually became team captain, and won the America East Conference long jump title as a senior in 2014. He graduated with a degree in kinesiology and physical education. After college, a former UMaine assistant track coach who had been on the 2004 U.S. bobsled team encouraged Del Duca to try the sport. He went to a bobsled combine in 2015 and impressed coaches with his speed and explosiveness.
Just your typical Friday afternoon at the curling with Snoop Dogg. 🥌#Olympics #WinterOlympics #MilanoCortina2026 pic.twitter.com/Z20rOFRHrM
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) February 6, 2026
Del Duca started as a push athlete before moving to the pilot seat after narrowly missing the 2018 Olympic team. He made his Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games, finishing 13th in both the two-man and four-man events. His career has climbed steadily since then: at the 2025 World Championships on his home track in Lake Placid, he piloted the U.S. sled to fourth-place finishes in both events, and he currently sits fourth in the World Cup standings heading into Milan Cortina.
Del Duca is the sixth U.S. bobsledder to serve as an Opening Ceremony flag bearer and the first in 70 years. The last was James Bickford, who carried the flag at the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Games, the same Italian mountain town where Del Duca will compete in bobsled events starting Feb. 15. A father of two, Del Duca said the selection caught him off guard. He has said that his late grandfather would be watching over him, and invoked a family nickname in imagining his reaction: “Hey, Frangesch, way to go kid.”
Live coverage of the Opening Ceremony begins at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, with a primetime rebroadcast at 8 p.m. ET. Jackson and Del Duca will lead Team USA’s 232-athlete delegation, the country’s largest Winter Olympics contingent in history, during the Parade of Nations at San Siro Stadium in Milan.
