Tom Daley poses outside the British Embassy in Paris after being named as one of two Team GB flagbearers for the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony. | Richard Pelham/Getty Images

Tom Daley and four other Team LGBTQ athletes will be prominent in the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics as flagbearers in the Parade of Nations.

There are expected to be 204 nations represented in Friday’s showpiece introduction to the Games, as well as the Refugee Olympic Team — one of whose chosen flagbearers, like Daley, is also an out LGBTQ athlete.

Cindy Ngamba, who will compete in women’s 75kg boxing, was born in Cameroon but will represent the Refugee Olympic Team in Paris.

The other out LGBTQ flagbearers are boxer Nesthy Petecio (Philippines) — who had the same role at the closing ceremony in Tokyo — sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye (Trinidad and Tobago), and reigning Olympic triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela). Rojas will not compete at Paris 2024 due to injury.

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Daley says being given the role for the Great Britain team is “one of the greatest honors” of his career.

The 30-year-old diving gold-medal winner from Tokyo was selected on the eve of his fifth Games, alongside rower Helen Glover.

The announcement was made by Team GB’s Chef de Mission Mark England at the team reception at the British Embassy in Paris on Wednesday evening.

Daley and Glover are expected to be with fellow British athletes aboard one of the flotilla of boats that will proceed down the River Seine, with around 300,000 spectators lining the route from Pont d’Austerlitz to Pont d’Iéna.

Athletes and officials are then set to parade into a 30,000-seater mini-stadium at the Jardins du Trocadero.

Ngamba and the Refugee Olympic Team are due to be second in the Parade, behind Greece; GB’s Daley and Glover 72nd; Petecio 148th with the Philippines; Ahye 186th with Trinidad and Tobago; with Venezuela and Rojas 196th. Hosts France will be the 205th and final team to enter.

Daley said the duty fulfils one of his childhood dreams and the fact that his family — husband Dustin Lance Black and their two sons, Robbie and Phoenix — will be watching on is “a very special thing.”

As noted by Team GB, Daley will be the first diver to ever carry the Union Flag at an Olympic Ceremony and the first athlete from aquatics since the swimmer Mark Foster.

Foster — like Daley, an out gay man — was flagbearer at the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008, after which he retired from competition. He came out publicly in 2017.

After Friday, the number of Olympic flagbearers at a Summer Games who are LGBTQ and out will rise to 21. Research by historian Tony Scupham-Bilton records the following as having also carried their national flags in either opening or closing ceremonies:

  • Raelene Boyle, Australia, track and field – 1976, opening
  • Sue Bird, USA, basketball – 2020, opening
  • Cecilia Carranza Saroli, Argentina, sailing – 2020, opening
  • Marta, Brazil, soccer – 2016, opening
  • Andri Eleftheriou, Cyprus, skeet – 2020, opening 
  • Amini Fonua, Tonga, swimming – 2012, opening
  • Mark Foster, GB, swimming – 2008, opening
  • Gro Hammerseng, Norway, handball – 2008, opening
  • Kellie Harrington, Ireland, boxing – 2020, opening
  • Caitlyn Jenner, USA, track and field – 1984, opening
  • Ari-Pekka Liukkonen, Finland, swimming – 2020, opening
  • Francine Niyonsaba, Burundi, track and field – 2016, opening; 2020, closing
  • Nesthy Petecio, Philippines, boxing – 2020, closing; 2024, opening
  • Kate Richardson-Walsh, GB, hockey – 2016, closing
  • Yulimar Rojas, Venezuela, track and field – 2024, opening *
  • Caster Semenya, South Africa, track and field – 2012 opening, 2016 closing
  • Blyth Tait, New Zealand, equestrian – 2000, opening
  • Ian Thorpe, Australia, swimming – 2000, closing

* Yulimar Rojas was due to be flagbearer at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony but missed her flight. Although she will not compete at Paris 2024 through injury, she has been named as one of her country’s flagbearers on Friday.

Meanwhile, Daley has also been speaking about the “big responsibility” he feels as a high-profile out LGBTQ athlete.

For an episode of the BBC’s “All About… Olympics” series for Paris 2024, Daley sat down with his former diving idol and mentor Leon Taylor, who he watched on TV winning silver in 10m synchro at Athens 2004.

Asked about how using his voice has changed him as a person during his diving career, Daley replies: “I think lots of athletes and people that have been successful in certain areas, almost have a responsibility to set an example of what you think the world should be like, in terms of your values and your views.

“When I came out, there was also this expectation of being somebody that would speak up for minorities and for the LGBTQ+ community. I think that does come with a lot of pressure and worry about saying the right thing.

“I had to go on a very steep learning curve about LGBT history because I had no idea about the people who came before me, to give us the rights that we have today.”

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Meeting Black, whose work as an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director had been centered on LGBTQ activism, inspired not just romance but also advocacy.

However, there are still relatively few out gay or bi male athletes, let alone Olympians, and fewer still who have been as vocal on LGBTQ rights as Daley.

He continues on the episode: “I think that is one of the biggest reasons why we have lots of athletes who choose not to come out — it’s because of that responsibility of being a role model for lots of queer youth.

“It’s a lot of pressure but at the same time, if you believe something and are passionate about it, it’s not something that I have to really overly think about.”