Tom Daley and Helen Glover have been named as Team GB’s joint flag bearers for the opening ­ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday. The duo boast three Olympic gold ­medals between them with Daley coming into the Games as the defending champion in the men’s 10m synchro diving event.

Glover won coxless pairs gold in both London and Rio, and came out of retirement in 2021 in a quest to add to her medals tally in the French capital. Daley is the first diver to be afforded the honour of carrying the flag in the opening ceremony, while Glover is the second consecutive rower after Moe Sbihi in Tokyo.

Daley, 30, said his first thoughts were with his father Robert, who died of cancer one year before his son won the first of his four Olympic medals in 2012. “My dad would not have ever believed I would be a flag bearer one day,” Daley said. “He always con­sidered flag bearers to be Olympic icons and legends. I think he would be so incredibly proud of me being a flag bearer of Team GB.”

Daley said winning his gold medal alongside Matty Lee in Tokyo ensured he could approach Paris with a healthier mindset and is determined to soak up the experience.

“This Olympics has all been about enjoying it and soaking it in,” he said. “At the other Olympics I have tortured myself through those ­experiences because I wanted the gold medal so badly. I have won one and this time I am going to soak in all the experiences.”

The British Olympic Association president, Princess Anne, was present at the British Ambassador’s residence in Paris where the appointment of Daley and Glover was confirmed.

Glover, 38, who will be ­competing in the women’s four in Paris, described the news as “probably the biggest honour of my life”. She said: “I just love the Olympics and have always loved what it stood for. But I still pinch myself that I am an ­Olympian, let alone doing something that I see as going down in history.

“To be flag bearer for a nation, it’s an honour. You can work hard to become an Olympian but this is bestowed upon me by somebody else who has seen that hard work. That just means so much.”

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