Sir Matthew, the winner of four consecutive rowing gold medals between 1992 and 2004, was speaking to insidethegames about the prospect of Sir Steve Redgrave, with whom he won three of his golds, lighting the Flame.

Sir Steve is not only another of Britain's greatest Olympians, but he is also one of only four in history to have won gold at five consecutive Games.

He has been strongly linked with lighting the Flame and is the favourite with bookmaker William Hill to do so.

"Steve would be an outstanding choice, but there are lots of outstanding choices," Sir Matthew said.

Intriguingly, he added: "I am not convinced they will choose an individual to light the Flame.

"It could be a group of people, it could be a mechanism by which the Flame is lit or it could be someone unexpected, someone emblematic of the East End of London or someone born on the day we won the vote in Singapore or something.

"I do not think it is a given that it has to be an Olympic icon."

Sir Matthew is also confident in the British rowing squad's medal hopes, and said he is optimistic they would remain as the world's number one team after the Games.

Katherine Grainger (left) and Anna Watkins race to gold in the women's double sculls final race on day seven of the FISA 2011 Rowing World Championships at Lake Bled, Slovenia

Last year Britain finished top of the medal table after a dominant showing at the World Championships in Slovenia.

"I think the rowing team are the strongest in the world at the moment," Sir Matthew said.

"They are the world's number one and if we hold onto that status until after the Olympics we'll have had a fantastic Games.

"We would need to win a minimum of three [events] if not four to do that.

"If we manage that it will be great."

In particular, Sir Matthew believes Katherine Grainger, competing with Anna Watkins in the double sculls, will finally win a gold after three successive Olympic silver medals.

"She's favourite, that crew has been fantastic all season," he explained.

"You can never say definitively they're going to win, they are strong favourites, they are one of the two or three strongest favourites in the whole Olympics.

"They are one of our strongest if not our strongest medal chance in the rowing team."

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