T&T's World junior silver medallist, swimmer Dylan Carter will be the flag bearer for the local contingent at the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in China today.Some 4,000 athletes from 204 countries from around the world have converged in the southern Chinese city for the second edition of the 15-day quadrennial Games, whose inaugural event was in Singapore in 2010.
The 18-year-old Carter, who attends the University of Southern Califonia, will represent the red, white and black in the parade of teams and national sporting organisations (NSOs) at the Nanjing National Sports Centre Stadium in front of an expected capacity crowd in the 60,000-seater venue.Carter, this country's top junior swimmer who competed in his first senior open meet for T&T at the recently concluded Glasgow Commonwealth Games in Scotland is spearheading the 11-member T&T YOG team that also include fellow swimmers David Mc Leod and Johnnya Ferdinand; track and field athletes Jeminise Parris, Kashief King, Aduwelle Wright, Akani Hislop and Chelsea James; beach volleyballers Chelsi Ward and Malika Davidson; and sailor Abigail Affoon.
On the eve of the opening ceremony, all athletes will mingle and mix in the YOG "Let's Get Together Festival" at the Youth Olympic Village square, a welcome session for the athletes, put on by the YOG Cultural and Education Programme (CEP) where the Young Ambassador Jeannette Small will be performing.
Interested persons can follow the progress of the T&T team at the T&T Olympic Committee (T&TOC) social media websites, twitter www.ttoc.org and the Games' website www.nanjing2014.org/en.
The action at the Games gets underway tomorrow with Mc Leod in the Men's 100 metres backstroke preliminaries and opening round beach volleyball encounters for Ward and Davidson against Germany's Sarah Schneider and Lisa Arnholdt.