Tom Daley and Helen Glover have been named as Team GB’s flagbearers ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
They are two of Britain’s most experienced Olympians. Glover is a two-time rowing gold medallist poised to take part in her fourth Olympics having come of retirement to compete at Tokyo 2020.
Daley, meanwhile, is set to feature at his fifth Games as he competes in the 10m synchronised platform event alongside Noah Williams, with whom he won silver at the World Championships in February.
Glover won gold in 2012 and 2016 as well as finishing fourth in the women’s pairs in Tokyo, while Daley arrives having won gold with Matty Lee in the men’s synchronised 10m platform in 2021. Daley is the first Team GB diver to win four Olympic medals
‘Being a flagbearer biggest honour of my life’
On being named as a flagbearer, Glover said: “This is probably the biggest honour of my life. I just love the Olympics and have always loved what it stood for. I still pinch myself that I am an Olympian, being a flagbearer and going down in history
“I’ve never been to an opening ceremony before and I’ll be carrying the flag at my first one. It’s unbelievable to be in this position. The team is full of amazing stories and inspirational people, so to be representing every athlete’s individual story when I stand there is really important to me.”
Daley added: “To be asked to be flagbearer is one of the greatest honours in my Olympic diving career. To be able to do it in my fifth Olympic Games and have my family here is a very special thing.
“It has always been a dream of mine, since I was a little kid. I remember in 2008 walking out behind the flagbearer right in the front line, because we were the smallest group of people, and to now be one of the two people to lead out the team is such a huge honour.
“If my dad was around now, he would be so incredibly proud, because he always said that you would know you have cemented your Olympic legacy if you are asked to be a flagbearer at an Olympic Games.”
‘Fairytale endings are so hard to find’
Both Daley and Glover are inspired by their families.
For Glover her involvement sends a message. “I’m 37. I’ve got three kids and I want to show there’s no reason I should not be doing this,” she told Sky Sports News.
“I do think sport is a big reflection on society and there is this sense of when women have children, they’re kind of different, changed and yes they are but that can be really positive. I’m a very different person to who I was in London and Rio but I think I’m a better athlete because of it.”
She added: “I don’t think every person will make this choice. I don’t think every mum who starts a family will want to go back to work, will want to go back to their hobbies, will want to go into their sport. But every single mum should have the choice. It’s about choice and options. Because that’s what makes you feel isolated and lonely.
“When you have a family the option should still be there. You don’t have to. You don’t have to do it, you don’t have to go and become an Olympian. But you should have choices that make you feel like the best version of yourself.”
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Two-time gold medallist Helen Glover says she wants to showcase how women can return to sport after having children and insists she is now a better athlete because of her motherhood experience
She does want to end her Games in Paris with a medal. “I always want to look back on this time with the fairytale ending and that’s tricky because fairytale endings are so hard to find in sport. They’re so hard to find and they’re so unpredictable. I think I want the fairytale ending for them more than they do, they just love me as their mum,” she said.
But she added: “After being through so much of the hard bit, I’d love to celebrate the good bit. It’s going to be a celebration either way, but whether it’s a fairytale is just down to the day and the moment.”
Daley reflected on his comeback. “I thought Tokyo was my last games,” he told Sky Sports News.
“With a little bit of time and a bit of space, it made me really miss diving, that atmosphere, the team-mates and being able to travel and see my friends from around the world but it actually all came down to my son Robbie who wanted to see me dive again.
“When your kid says that they want you to do something, you’d do anything for your kids.
“I remember thinking it was an impossible dream to take two years out and get back in time to qualify and be ready to dive at an Olympics within a year seems kind of silly, but he said: ‘Papa I want to see you diving at the Olympics’ and that was that.”