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Swimmer Ellie Simmonds and archer John Stubbs will carry the Great Britain flag at Tuesday's Tokyo Paralympics opening ceremony.

It's a special honour to be chosen to carry the flag and until this year there was only one flag bearer per country.

But this year the rules changed to allow both a male and female to carry the flag together.

This makes Ellie the first woman to carry the flag for GB in a summer Paralympics for 21 years.

The last female paralympian to carry the flag was swimmer Maggie McEleny in 2000.

Both athletes will be competing in their fourth Games in Japan.

Ellie Simmonds first appeared at the Paralympics in Beijing 2008 aged 13, and since then she has won eight Paralympic medals, including four golds.

She said: "I'm hugely honoured to carry the flag on behalf of all the athletes, support staff and for the entire nation back home".

"This will be my first opening ceremony. Just to be here in Tokyo is amazing but to carry the flag is the icing on the cake and I can't wait for the competition to start."

Stubbs, 56, is the oldest member of the GB team and will be the first archer in recent history to be a flagbearer.

He won a gold medal at the Beijing games in 2008 and a silver eight years later in Rio.

"It's an absolute honour to be representing ParalympicsGB as flag bearer alongside Ellie," he said.

"For any elite athlete to go to the Games and be bestowed this honour is a privilege. Words can't describe what it means to me.