Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Patrick Brachner will represent Azerbaijan in the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in PyeongChang, the Republic of Korea.

Brachner will fight for medals in the men’s slalom and giant slalom events, Azertag reported.

At the opening ceremony on February 9, the country's only representative, Patrick Brachner will also bear the flag. Any member of the delegation had the chance to carry the flag at the previous Winter Olympics. But this time the International Olympic Committee has demanded to appoint athlete as the flag-bearer. That's why Brachner will have to fulfill this mission.

Notably, Azerbaijani delegation to 2018 Winter Olympics includes 11 people, including NOC Vice-president Chingiz Huseynzade, Deputy secretary general Azer Aliyev, Deputy minister of youth and sports Ismayil Ismayilov, head of sports department Farid Mansurov, President of Azerbaijan Mountain Ski Federation Rauf Khalilov.

Patrick Brachner is an Austrian alpine skier who now represents Azerbaijan.

He began to participate in cross-country skiing at the age of 12 and in a few years he already won several youth competitions in Austria.

Since 2010, an alpine skier represents Azerbaijan. At the age of 18 he took part in the World Cup in Croatian Zagreb.

In 2012, Patrick Brachner won the giant slalom competition held in the Czech Republic. This was the first victory of the Azerbaijani skier.

Next year, he took the fourth place at the open championship of Azerbaijan in Alpine skiing in the Bulgaria. This was the best result among Azerbaijani skiers at the tournament.

He also competed for Azerbaijan at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the slalom and giant slalom. He was selected to carry the Azerbaijani flag during the opening ceremony.

Patrick represented Azerbaijan at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Taking 53rd place in giant slalom, he failed to reach the finish line in the slalom competition.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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