Greek Skier is First to Carry 2026 Olympic Flame
20th June 2025
Last modified on June 23rd, 2025
Greece’s top alpine skier, AJ Ginnis, will carrying the flame for the 2026 Winter Olympics Lighting Ceremony in November.
The decision has been unanimously approved by the Hellenic Olympic Committee.
“Ginnis is the leading Greek athlete in alpine skiing, having secured the greatest distinction ever achieved by a Greek in the sport: second place at the Alpine Skiing World Championships,” said the president of the Olympic Torch Relay Council, Thomas Tokas.
“He will represent our country at the forthcoming Winter Olympic Games, and we believe he will once again give his all.”
⛷️ AJ Ginnis will be the first Torchbearer for the Winter Olympics Milano-Cortina 2026
👉 https://t.co/vzwXoaR9th #AJGinnis #LightingCeremony #OlympicFlame pic.twitter.com/0RTl2dIJCL— Ηellenic Olympic Committee (@HellenicOlympic) June 18, 2025
“It is a great honour for me, something I never imagined as a child,” said Ginnis.
“I would like to thank the Hellenic Olympic Committee for its trust and for this decision.”
Alexandros Ioannis ‘AJ’ Ginnis was born in Athens and learnt to ski at Mt Parnassos.
His parents then moved to the USA when he was 15-years old and he was selected for the US team in 2012.
He made his World Cup debut in 2014.
In January 2021 Ginnis became the first Greek alpine racer to register World Cup points when he finished eleventh in the slalom at Flachau in Austria.
Ginnis achieved his first World Cup podium in February 2023 as the runner-up in a slalom at Chamonix.
He was the first skier from Greece in history to secure a podium position in a World Cup alpine ski race.
PlanetSKI was at the race in Chamonix.
Chamonix World Cup slalom race, February 2023. Image © PlanetSKI
There are 25 ski areas in Greece with 117 ski lifts that give access to 190 kms of marked slopes.
The main ones are:
- Parnassos
- Kalavrita
- Katafygio-Oiti
- Velouchi
- Helmos
- Vasilitsa
- Mainalo
- Ziria
- Velouchi
- Pertouli
They cover much of the mainland.
Image c/o Snowreport.gr
We report in detail about the skiing on offer in Greece in this PlanetSKI article when we visited in the summer of 2024:
The Flame Lighting Ceremony will be held in Ancient Olympia on 26th November 2025.
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