Eight years after he was expelled from the Olympic Village in Sydney for wearing a rival sponsor's swimsuit, Mark Foster will lead Great Britain into the Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games.

The 38-year-old Essex-born sprint swimmer was last night voted to carry the Union Jack on the eve of his fifth Olympic Games. He is the first swimmer to carry the flag in an opening ceremony since Anita Lonsbrough at the Tokyo Games in 1964.

It is a moment of redemption for Foster, a renowned maverick, who has had his fair share of disagreements with the administrators of his sport. The short-course specialist announced his retirement in 2006 after falling out with Bill Sweetenham, then the national performance director, over the Australian's strict training regime.

He returned to competition a year later in pursuit of his first Olympic medal. His comeback was assured when he set a new personal best and British record of 21.96sec in the 50metres freestyle this year.

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Foster, who made his Olympic debut at Seoul in 1988, learnt of his selection at a team reception hosted by Sir William Ehrman, the British Ambassador, at his official residence in Beijing in the company of the Princess Royal. The flag-bearer is chosen from a shortlist by Olympicteam leaders, in consulation with athletes, after each team leader nominates a candidate.

“I was blown away when I was told, it was a big surprise and a huge honour,” he said. “Some of the most wonderful names in British sport have been Olympic flag-bearers.”

Foster reached the 50metres freestyle finals at both Barcelona in 1992 and Sydney in 2000. He missed the Athens Games in 2004 because Sweetenham refused to pick him after he missed the selection time by one hundredth of a second at the Olympic trials. His appeal on the grounds that he had been hampered by a shoulder injury was dismissed by an independent panel. He will compete in the 50 metres freestyle in Beijing.

During his career, he has set five world records, seven European records, nine Commonwealth records and 19 British records. But his low points included being sent home early from Sydney for the sponsor snub, testing positive for marijuana at a meeting in France, being banned from an Olympic training camp for breaking a curfew and cutting the arms off a regulation swimsuit at the European Championships in Helsinki in 2000 because he prefers to race with bare arms.

Leading Britain into the opening ceremony of the Games preceding one hosted by his own country is the culmination of a difficult personal journey. “I really wanted to be picked but I didn't totally believe I would be,” he said. “Making the Olympic Games this time around was fantastic in itself, but this has really topped it off. It's phenomenal.”

The opening ceremony, starting at eight minutes past 8pm on the 8th of the eighth month in honour of the lucky Chinese number, is scheduled to last 3 hours. It begins with the entrance of the competing athletes, whose countries will file in into the stadium in the alphabetic order according to Chinese characters. Beijing officials say the ceremony will represent a “high-level Olympics with distinctive features”. Directed by Zhang Yimou, the Chinese film director, it is expected to include acrobats and a massive firework display. About 80 heads of state, including Presidents George Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy, will attend.

Past British Olympic flag-bearers
2004 Kate Howey
2000 Sir Matthew Pinsent
1996 Sir Steve Redgrave
1992 Sir Steve Redgrave
1988 Ian Taylor
1984 Lucinda Green
1980 Richard Palmer
1976 Rodney Pattison
1972 David Broome
1968 Lynn Davies
1964 Anita Lonsbrough
1960 Richard McTaggert
1956 George MacKenzie
1952 Harold Whitlock
1948 Emrys Lloyd
1936 Jack Beresford
1932 Lord Burghley
1928 Malcolm Nokes
1924 Philip Noel-Baker
1908 John Studd