Maria Jose Rienda will carry Spain's flat in the opening ceremony of the February 2006 Winter Olympics team in Turin, northern Italy, sources close to the skier said on Wednesday.

Rienda, who has won three heats of the Alpine skiing World Cup, will be the main turn at the Olympic meeting which takes place in Piedmont, Italy, where she will be among the favorites in the giant slalom.

The Granada-native, was called up on Tuesday by the head of Spain's Royal Winter Sports Federation, Eduardo Roldan, who said that 16 athletes had been invited to form Spain's Winter Olympics team and that 12 had already confirmed.

It will be the fourth Winter Olympics for Rienda, 30, who has competed in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994; Nagano, Japan, in 1998 and Salt Lake City, in the United States in 2002.

Source: Xinhua