The 24th Winter Olympics kicked off in Beijing on Friday with Armenia being represented by five athletes, who took part in the parade of athletes during the opening ceremony.

The flag of the Armenian delegation was carried by skier Mikayel Mikayelyan and figure skater Tina Karapetyan.

Hailing from Ashotsk, Mikayelan and his family are considered a record-holding family in this history of Olympics. Mikayelyan, his brother Sergey and mother Alla were Team Armenia flag-bearers five times during past Olympic Games (Alla Mikayelyan in 1998 Nagano, Sergey Mikayelyan in 2014 Sochi, and Mikayel Mikayelyan in 2016 Lillehammer Youth Olympics).

Joining Mikayelyan and Karapetyan in the procession of athletes were skiers Katya Galstyan and Angelina Muradyan, as well as Karapetyan’s skating partner Simon Sénécal. The head of the Armenian delegation is Armen Grigoryan from the National Olympic Committee who was accompanied by other officials and coaches during the parade.

It was reported earlier that the President of the Ski Federation of Armenia Gagik Sargsyan, mountain skier Harutyun Harutyunyan and coach Arsen Nersisyan had all tested positive for the coronavirus and would not be attending the games in Beijing.

Around 2,900 athletes will compete in in the events. There will be 15 sports held at the Winter Olympics in Beijing this year.

The 15 Winter Olympic sports in 2022 are bobsled, luge, skeleton, ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, short track speed skating, curling, alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined.