Queen Elizabeth II will officially open the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, Buckingham Palace confirmed Wednesday.
The queen already was scheduled to attend the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 27, in the Olympic Stadium, where she will be received by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Jacques Rogge, and the chairman of the organizing committee, Sebastian Coe.
She will be accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, at the event and will repeat her role Wednesday, Aug. 29, to mark the start of the Paralympics.
The queen will perform the Olympic duties as Head of State for the second time, having opened the 1976 Games in Montreal.
Her daughter, Princess Anne, competed on horseback in Canada with the British team in Equestrian Eventing.
This summer's opening ceremonies in Stratford, east London, come 64 years after the queen's father, King George VI, opened the London Olympics of 1948 across the city at Wembley Stadium.
