Sprint­er Michelle Lee Ahye and swim­mer Dy­lan Carter will car­ry the na­tion­al flag on Fri­day when Trinidad and To­ba­go walks across the riv­er Seine at the 2024 Paris Olympics Open­ing Cer­e­mo­ny pa­rade of na­tions.

The an­nounce­ment was made on Thurs­day by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) and said the ho­n­our “rec­og­nizes their ded­i­ca­tion, ex­cep­tion­al achieve­ments, and em­bod­i­ment of the Olympic spir­it.”

This is Ahye’s fourth Olympic Games and Carter’s third.

The sprint­er has rep­re­sent­ed T&T since 2007 first ap­pear­ing at the Carif­ta Games as a Ju­nior and pre­vi­ous­ly ap­peared at the Lon­don 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 games. She was laud­ed by the TTOC for her con­tri­bu­tion to T&T’s ath­let­ics land­scape.

“Her re­mark­able jour­ney is a tes­ta­ment to her un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment and re­lent­less pur­suit of ex­cel­lence,” The an­nounce­ment not­ed “Michelle first cap­tured the na­tion’s at­ten­tion with her in­cred­i­ble speed and de­ter­mi­na­tion, and she con­tin­ues to in­spire both young and sea­soned ath­letes alike.”

Ahye, 32, who has a per­son­al best time of 10.82 sec­onds in the 100 me­tres and 22.25 in the 200 me­tres event, suc­ceeds fel­low na­tion­al icon Kel­ly-Ann Bap­tiste who was T&T’s first woman flag-bear­er at an Olympic Games in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic. The for­mer na­tion­al sprint cham­pi­on will com­pete in the Women’s 100 me­tres and as part of the Women’s 4x100 me­tres quar­tet.

Carter a vet­er­an of the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games is a two-time Youth Olympic Games medal­list. He and 2008 flag bear­er George Bovell III have been train­ing for his next games and the next step of his se­nior ca­reer.

Carter, 28, is the hold­er of five na­tion­al records and the TTOC says he con­tin­ues to be an in­spi­ra­tion for the next big thing in the pool.

He is the Trinidad and To­ba­go’s record hold­er in the long course and short course 100 me­tre freestyle, 50 me­tre back­stroke, 100 me­tre back­stroke, 50 me­tre but­ter­fly, and 100 me­tre but­ter­fly events.

“Dy­lan’s ded­i­ca­tion to his sport and his coun­try has been ev­i­dent through­out his ca­reer, marked by his re­mark­able per­for­mances in the pool,” the re­lease said “His jour­ney from a promis­ing young swim­mer to an Olympian has been noth­ing short of ex­tra­or­di­nary. Dy­lan’s com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence and his pas­sion for swim­ming make him a per­fect am­bas­sador for our na­tion at the 2024 Sum­mer Olympics.”

The Olympic Games open­ing cer­e­mo­ny is sched­uled to be­gin to­day at 1:30 p.m. lo­cal time, Team TTO will be out­fit­ted in pa­rade wear sup­plied by France-based T&T es­tab­lished fash­ion house The Hide­out Cloth­ing.