Football star David Beckham will bring the Olympic flame from Greece to Britain for the torch relay ahead of the London 2012 Games, organisers said on Wednesday.
Beckham will be joined by five young Britons for Thursday’s handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
The Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder and former England captain will then be part of the delegation that brings the flame to Cornwall in southwest England to begin its 70-day journey around Britain and Ireland.
Beckham was part of London’s winning bid team in the contest to stage the Olympics and could be included in Great Britain’s football squad for the Games. During the final push of the bidding campaign in 2005, Beckham said he was dreaming of the day the Olympics would be staged in east London, where he grew up. Queen Elizabeth II’s daughter Princess Anne, who is a member of the London organising committee board, chief organiser Sebastian Coe, Olympics minister Hugh Robertson and London Mayor Boris Johnson will also be in the British delegation in Athens. The party flies back on Friday evening, landing at the Royal Naval Air Service’s Culdrose base in Cornwall, where there will be a special ceremony welcoming the flame.