Ryding is the first Briton to win an International Ski Federation Alpine Ski World Cup race since the circuit was launched in 1967. 

He took the slalom in Kitzbuhel a fortnight ago 

"I never dreamed of having a moment like this, it was a shock to be asked," the 35-year-old Chorley in Lancashire said.

"For skiing it's a really proud day too and hopefully puts us back into the limelight because that's what we need as a sport."

For Ryding, who first skied on snow at the age of 12 and continued racing on dry slopes until age 21, Beijing will be his fourth Olympics.

He will be hoping his rate of improvement continues in the Chinese capital having finished 27th in the slalom at Vancouver 2010, 17th at Sochi 2014 and ninth at Pyeongchang 2018. 

Muirhead is also making her fourth appearance at the Winter Olympics.

She won a bronze medal at Sochi 2014, the year after she and her rink were crowned world champions in Riga.

The 31-year-old from Perth, whose father Gary competed at Albertville 1992 when curling was a demonstration sport, is the first curler to carry the Union Flag Rhona since Rhona Martin at Turin 2006. 

Martin's quartet had won the Olympic gold medal at Salt Lake City in 2002 when their exploits in a final dubbed the "Stone of Destiny" ensured a television audience remained watching into the early hours of the morning back in Britain.

"Rhona led out the team when she won her gold and to follow on from that and be another curler and a Scot to do that is very special," Muirhead, an accomplished bagpiper who has competed at four World Championships, said.

"It’s been a rollercoaster to get here, a lot of challenges and a lot of highs.

"To be asked to be one of the flag bearers is a dream come true.

"It’s something I never dreamt I’d do, and I never dreamt I’d be back at a fourth Olympics."

Women have carried the flag for Britain at the three of the last four Winter Olympics before the International Olympic Committee introduced new criteria in time for last year's re-arranged Olympic Games in Tokyo which now encourages countries to have both male and female flagbearers. 

As well as Martin, Muirhead will follow in the footsteps of double Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold at Pyeongchang 2018 and Shelley Rudman, the Turin 2006 silver skeleton silver medallist, at Vancouver 2010. 

It was 90 years ago that Mollie Phillips became the first female flagbearer from any nation at Lake Placid 1932.

Britain's team at those Games comprised only four athletes, all in figure skating and all female.

Phillips was by far the senior member of the team at the age of 24 compared to Joan Dix, the second oldest, at just 13 years of age. 

The other two competitors, Cecilia Colledge and Megan Taylor, were both 11.