Follow us
Former England football captain David Beckham will help to start the Olympic flame's journey from Greece to the UK.
He will be among the British delegation - including Games chief Lord Coe and London Mayor Boris Johnson - which will collect the torch at a ceremony in Athens.
Beckham was among those who helped London fight off competition from Paris to win its bid to host the Games back in 2005.
The president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, will pass the flame to Princess Anne at the Panathenaic Stadium, the host of the first modern Games in 1896, just before 7.45pm local time.
After spending the night at the British embassy in Athens, the flame will be brought to the UK by the British delegation on a plane named Firefly on Friday evening, where there will be a welcoming ceremony at the Culdrose Royal Navy base in Cornwall.
On Saturday morning it will start an 8,000-mile journey around the UK from Land's End, carried by 8,000 torchbearers, as part of a 70-day relay ending at the Olympic Park.
The flame will then be used to light the cauldron in Stratford's Olympic Stadium at the Games' opening ceremony on July 27.
Five young people chosen by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog), will also be at the ceremony.
They were selected from around the country for their commitment to sporting excellence.
Lord Coe said: "We wanted to involve young people from across the UK in bringing home the Olympic flame.
"Their stories of personal achievement and contribution to sport echo the 8,000 inspiring torchbearer stories that will be shared from this weekend and over the next 10 weeks in the build-up to the start of the Games."
The flame was lit at a ceremony in Olympia - the ancient home of the Games - on May 10.
It has since been carried 1,800 miles through Greece by 500 torchbearers on a week-long route.
