Ivana Andusic Maksimovic(center L), the flagbearer of Serbian Olympic delegation enters the stadium during the opening ceremony of the 31st Summer Olymic Games at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed to have two flagbearers, a male and a female, for each team at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Wednesday
GENEVA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed to have two flagbearers, a male and a female, for each team at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony on Wednesday.
"We have changed the rules to allow National Olympic Committees to nominate a female and a male athlete to jointly bear their flag during the opening ceremony," said an IOC statement.
"We encourage all National Olympic Committees to make use of this option."
Athlete flagbearer (R) from China enters the stadium during the Athletes Parade at the opening ceremony for Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 16, 2014. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
The IOC also announced that July 24-August 9 Olympics will be the "first gender-balanced Olympic Games in history with 48.8 percent women's participation".
The IOC's executive board meeting added that there should be - for the first time - at least one female and one male athlete in every one of the 206 teams as well as the Refugee Olympic Team participating. ■
