Ben Ainslie says carrying the flag 'is a huge honour'

Ben Ainslie who is the most successful sailor in Olympic history was chosen by the British Olympics Association team leaders. The 35 year old from Falmouth collected a fourth successive gold medal when he won the Finn class in Weymouth.

The first of Ainslie's five Olympic medals - the most of any sailor was a silver in Atlanta in 1996 when he was just 19. He has gone on to win golds at Sydney, Athens and Beijing all in the Finn discipline, before adding a fourth in Weymouth.

He was the first person to carry the Olympic torch when it arrived in Land's End in May. He was the first of 8,000 torchbearers to carry the flame around the country over the next 70 days.