The Winter Olympics get underway today in Beijing, making it the first city to host both a Summer and a Winter Games.
Ireland has a team of six in China, competing across diverse events that we are not used to seeing but which we feel might catch our imagination over the coming two weeks.
Each day of the Games we will carry a Winter Olympic Diary to bring you news of the Irish competitors, the bigger and some of the offbeat stories from the games.
OPENING CEREMONY LIVE
Brendan Newby and Elsa Desmond have been named as the flagbearers for Team Ireland for the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing later this morning.
The Opening Ceremony begins at 19:30 local time, which is 11:30 am in Ireland and we will be represented by six athletes across Alpine Skiing, Cross Country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Luge and Snowboarding.
In a move to increase gender balance in the Olympic Games, the IOC increased the number of flagbearers per nation to two athletes ahead of last summer’s Tokyo Games, with one male and one female athlete sharing their nation’s flag as they walk into the stadium.
Freestyle Skier Newby carried the flag for the Closing Ceremony in Pyeongchang 2018 and now will enter the stadium in his second Olympic Games as the flagbearer alongside Luger Desmond.
Ireland will be the 65th nation to enter the Arena.
HOW TO WATCH THE GAMES
The Opening Ceremony will be shown live on the RTÉ News Channel at 11.30 am this morning. For the duration of the games, the RTÉ News Channel will have a daily highlights programme at 3.00 pm.
The Closing Ceremony on Sunday 20 February will also be live on the RTÉ News Channel.
RTÉ Sport online as well as RTÉ News and RTÉ Radio will keep fans up to date with news of the Irish athletes in action in Beijing.
For a more immersive experience, the BBC is rolling out its big guns and will broadcast over 300 hours of live coverage from China.
Clare Balding will be the anchor host alongside a wealth of experts who will make sense of the sports we only ever dip into every four years.
One to watch will be the nightly Highlights show between 7 pm and 8 pm.
IRISH IN ACTION OVER THE WEEKEND
Our first two athletes in action will be Jack Gower in the Downhill Skiing event on Sunday at 3 AM Irish time, followed by Thomas Westgard in the Cross-Country Skiing Sprint distance of 15 KM at 07:45.
ONE TO WATCH
On Saturday lunchtime there will be 90 minutes or so of total chaos as the Short Track Speed Skating Mixed Team Relay takes to the ice.
Two men and two women will tag each other and join the race moving in and out over the course of 18 laps.
There will be crashes, there will be heartbreak, there will be OMG moments galore.
This is the first time that there has been a mixed element but this is, without doubt, one of the events that most stands out in the memory from games past.
