WHO WILL CARRY THE FLAME FOR BRITAIN? NOT ME, SAYS BECKHAM

Beckham…”not me”

David Beckham, who hasn’t been selected for the GB Olympics football squad, has rejected speculation that he may be offered the prestigious role of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Games. 
  The identity of the person selected for the task is being kept under wraps to build drama around the opening ceremonies. 
  “I’ve always said lighting the torch in the stadium is something that should be done by an Olympian… who has done incredible things for our country and won gold medals,” said Beckham.

John Mark…”like a Greek God”

  That wasn’t the case at the 1948 London Games when John Mark, a tall, blond handsome medical student described as being “like a young Greek God” was chosen for his looks to represent the youth of the world. Women swooned when he entered Wembley Stadium carrying the Olympic flame. 
  Four years later the Finns appointed their running hero Paavo Nurmi to perform the ritual. In Atlanta in 1996 organisers chose Muhammad Ali and in Sydney four years later the aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman lit the flame.  At the 1994 Los Angeles Games I saw actor and former Olympic decathlete Rafer Johnson carry out the ceremony.   

Roger Bannister…first four-minute miler

  So who will the London organisers choose? An early favourite was Steve Redgrave, the five-time Olympic gold-medal rower.
   But my pick is 83-year-old Roger Bannister, the man who enthralled a depressed, post-war Britain in 1954 by becoming the first man to run a four-minute mile.

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