Olympic sailors are popular flag bearers: Twelve sailing Olympians open the Games for their country

Today, Olympic beach volleyball champion Laura Ludwig and Germany's most successful water jumper Patrick Hausding will carry the flag for Team D at the opening ceremony in the Tokyo stadium. Nine other countries have chosen male and female sailors to lead their teams at the opening ceremony of these Olympic Games. Olympic champions and medallists have been chosen for this honourable task. The best known among them are Argentina's Nacra 17 Olympic champions Santi Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli, the British 470 Olympic champion Hannah Mills and Denmark's 49er Olympic champion Jonas Warrer.

Here are all the Olympic sailing participants who are in action today as flag bearers:

• Argentina: Santiago Lange & Cecilia Carranza Saroli, Nacra 17
• Angola: Matias Montinho, 470 Men
• Austria: Tanja Frank & Thomas Zajac, 49erFX & Nacra 17
• Denmark: Jonas Warrer, 49er
• El Salvador: Enrique Arathoon, Laser
• Great Britain: Hannah Mills, 470 Women
• Guatemala: Juan Ignacio Maegli & Isabella Maegli, Laser & Laser Radial
• Seychelles: Rodney Govinden, Laser
• Sweden: Max Salminen, Finn

Like the vast majority of Olympians in the "satellite sports" with stadiums or sports stages outside of Tokyo, the ten members of the DSV fleet will not be taking part in the opening ceremony. The risk of possibly contracting the coronavirus at the major event despite all the precautionary measures and risking the Olympic start due to a mandatory quarantine or a ban seems too high. "The question has never arisen for me either," said Laser Radial helmswoman Svenja Weger, who, alongside Laser World Champion Philipp Buhl (see picture below), who made a calm and confident impression on Friday, will be the first athlete from the German Sailing Team to compete in the Olympics from Sunday. The opening ceremony starts today at 1 pm German time (8 pm Japanese time).

Like Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke, Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel are also looking forward to their first start on 27 July. Both recommended not to miss the opening ceremony on television. Thomas Plößel said: "At the closing ceremony in Rio, the Japanese briefly introduced themselves at the very end with a performance in the stadium. We were very impressed, so maybe that's worth watching today." Helmsman Erik Heil reported: "Yesterday was the measurement day and everything went smoothly so far. Today we were on the water for the first time with the complete Olympic set-up and Olympic branding. The boat felt good and we were travelling quite fast. On the 27th, the time has come for our first start. You can watch a live broadcast on most race days on the website of the German Sailing Association."

DSV Sports Director Nadine Stegenwalner said two days before the first starting shots were fired that her local team was in top form: "Everyone is very well prepared and highly focussed." Although the team manager of the sailors has her hands full every day and only sleeps a few hours a night, she can also rely on her team on site during these exceptionally demanding games. She reported on this during her visit to the media centre in the Enoshima marina (see photo).

On the weather outlook for the first starters: The threat of a typhoon, which seemed very real a few days ago, has not been confirmed so far. Nevertheless, after light to medium winds and sunshine at the weekend, stronger winds of between 15 and 20 knots are expected on Monday, with gusts of up to 25 knots and rain in the afternoon. "It's no secret that I still like strong winds best," said Philipp Buhl, who has now matured into an all-rounder, on Friday in Enoshima - with an anticipatory smile.