Fencing champ to carry flag

FENCING champion and double gold medal winner Laura Flessel will carry the flag for France at the opening of the Olympic Games in London on July 27.

Known as "la Guêpe" - the Wasp - the 40-year-old épée fencer will be competing in her fifth Olympics.

She leads France's all-time list of Olympic winners with five medals and has also won 13 world championship medals and been world champion six times.

She edged out San Antonio Spurs basketball player Tony Parker in the final vote.

Guadeloupe-born Flessel will be only the third woman to receive the honour of leading out her country, after the swimmer Christine Caron in 1968 and Marie-José Pérec in 1996.