Tyrone Smith has been named as the flag-bearer who will lead Bermuda into the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games tonight.

The 31-year-old will carry his country’s flag at the Olympic curtain-raiser in front of 50,000 spectators at the iconic Maracanã Stadium, starting at 8pm Bermuda time.

Smith, who was chosen for the honour by Carlos Lee, the Bermuda chef de mission, will march along with rower Shelley Pearson, sprinter Tre Houston, swimmers Rebecca Heyliger and Julian Fletcher, and sailors Cameron Pimentel and Cecilia Wollmann.

Flora Duffy, the island’s medal hopeful in triathlon, will not join the parade because she does not arrive in Rio until next week, as her competition is held on August 20.

Lee said that Smith, a three-times Olympian, had earned the right to carry the island’s flag as the most senior member of the squad.

“At 31, the elder statesman of our team, this is the third successive Olympic Games that Tyrone has competed in and he’s earned the right to carry the flag and proudly lead our team into the Rio Olympic Games.”

Smith, who caused a storm on Twitter with his “dancing man” routine at London 2012, has already promised to unveil a new look for tonight’s ceremony.

“Did something a little radical with my hair by my standards for the ?#?Olympics ?#?BER ?#?ExpressYourself!.” the long jumper wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.

Pearson, making her Olympic debut, will leave the ceremony soon after the Parade of Nations, as she competes tomorrow morning in the single sculls.

Also competing tomorrow is Fletcher in the 100 metres breaststroke at the Olympic Aquatics Centre.

An estimated three billion people will watch the opening ceremony, which has taken five years to produce and includes 300 dancers, 5,000 volunteers and 12,000 costumes.

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Dame Judi Dench, of Britain, are confirmed to have roles in the production before the 207 competing countries take part in the parade.