SHEFFIELD-BORN ice skater Olivia Smart and skier Quim Salarich will be Spain’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Smart, 28, became a Spanish citizen in 2017 have previously skated ice dance for Great Britain in partnership with Joseph Buckland between 2010 and 2015.
In December 2015, Smart announced that she would be skating with Spain’s Adrian Diaz, and was released a few weeks later from her commitment to the British Skating Association.
Barcelona-based Smart and Diaz represented Spain at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics where they finished eighth.
Adrian Diaz retired from the sport, which gave Olivia Smart a new opportunity back in the UK on the TV show, Dancing on Ice, where she was one of the professional skaters.
In 2023, she teamed up with British Olympic gymnast Nile Wilson, and won the competition.
Her new ice partner became Germany’s Tim Dieck, and since the Spanish federation offered better financial backing than his home country, he switched allegiance to Spain.
They finished fifth in the 2025 European Championships in Estonia, and sixth in the World Championships in the USA.
This month, the partnership came seventh at the European Championships- held in Smart’s home city of Sheffield.
It will be Olivia Smart’s second Olympic Games as a member of the Spanish team, while Tim Dieck will make his debut for the country, after representing Germany at Beijing 2022.
The duo will be part of a record-levelling Spanish contingent of 20 competitors- the same number as at Sochi 2014.
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