World No. 2 girls’s tennis participant Coco Gauff will be a part of Los Angeles Lakers four-time MVP LeBron James as a flag bearer for Staff USA throughout the opening ceremony on the 2024 Summer season Olympics in Paris on Friday.
James’ choice was a historic one for the People, as he turned the first male basketball participant to be chosen as a flag bearer.
Gauff will make historical past in a number of methods on Friday, turning into the primary tennis participant and youngest Staff USA athlete to be chosen for the glory. The 2023 U.S. Open champion turned 20 in March and the earlier file was held by alpine skier Cindy Nelson, who was 21 years outdated when she served as a flag bearer on the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Video games in Austria.
Gauff will likely be competing in girls’s singles, doubles and combined doubles. She’ll play alongside world No. 6 Jessica Pegula in girls’s doubles and males’s No. 11 Taylor Fritz within the combined competitors.
The glory marks a miraculous turnaround for Gauff, after she was compelled to overlook the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 on account of a optimistic COVID take a look at.
“I by no means thought in 1,000,000 years I’d have the glory of carrying the American flag for Staff USA within the opening ceremony,” Gauff stated in a press release, in response to an ESPN and Reuters report. “I couldn’t be extra proud to steer my teammates with LeBron as we showcase our dedication and keenness on the largest stage there may be.”
