Redgrave Should Light the Olympic Flame in Stratford

At some point on the night of Friday, July 27th, pretty much every single Brit who has a TV set will be watching the denouement of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the moment when the chosen one is asked to light the Olympic flame at London's Olympic Stadium.

To do this is as big an honour as any sportsperson can receive which is why, of all the opening ceremonies I have attended over the years, the moment when an infirm Muhammad Ali lit the torch in an otherwise forgettable Atlanta Games in 1996 will stand out - at least until this July. But who will the honour be bestowed upon this time?

Over the past few days I have heard this subject debated with a whole raft of names, from David Bond, the surviving gold medallist from the 1948 London Games (which would be a nice touch) to Dame Kelly Holmes, double gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Games, to the great Daley Thompson and so on but, to my mind, there are two, stand out contenders.

The first is Lord Sebastian Coe, gold medallist both in 1980 and 1984, one of our greatest Olympians ever and the man more responsible than ever for bringing the Games back to London this year. Coe has moved seamlessly from top sportsman to top sports administrator and we thank him for this. Yet Coe cannot possibly light the Olympic flame because it would smack far too much of it being my ball and I will play with it.

This then leaves one man, the greatest British Olympian of them all. He is, of course, Sir Steve Redgrave. The winner of five Olympic gold medals in five consecutive Games - did you take that in? - in the sport of rowing, one of the most gruelling and least financially-rewarding sports of them all, Redgrave overcame a stream of debilitating illnesses to be a champion over and over again and, since he finally hung up his oars after that memorable fifth gold in Sydney in 2000, he has become a sports ambassador for this country and charity fund-raiser of great note. I cannot think there would be a single dissenting voice if Sir Steve is selected to get the London Games up and running. So he is my choice and I cannot think of anybody else as deserving as one of the greatest sportspersons this country has ever produced.