Celebrated boxer M C Mary Kom and men’s hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh will be the flag bearers of the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, ANI reported. Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia will be the flag bearer of the contingent at the closing ceremony.

“The flagbearers for the Indian contingent of Tokyo 2020 for the opening ceremony on July 23rd are Mary Kom and Manpreet Singh,” Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra said in an official letter.

“The flagbearer for the Indian contingent at the closing ceremony on August 8 will be Bajrang Punia,” he further stated.

IOA has communicated the decision in this regard to the Organising Committee of the Games, PTI reported. 

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For the first time, India is having two flag-bearers — one male and one female — to ensure “gender parity”, Batra had recently announced. 

The country’s lone individual Olympic gold-medallist Abhinav Bindra was the flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

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Meanwhile, over 100 Indian athletes would be gunning for podium finishes at this year’s Olympics, which was postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At its executive board meeting last year, the International Olympic Committee had made provisions for flag-bearers from both genders at the opening ceremony.

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“…the IOC Executive Board also decided that there should be – for the first time ever – at least one female and one male athlete in every one of the 206 teams and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team participating at the Games of the Olympiad,” IOC chief Thomas Bach had said.