LeBron James and Coco Gauff are the U.S. Flag Bearers

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LeBron James and Coco Gauff are the U.S. Flag Bearers

The N.B.A. star LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and the tennis star Coco Gauff were chosen by their peers to be flag bearers for the ******* States on Friday night at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony, which will be held in boats floating along the Seine

James, the N.B.A.’s career leading scorer and a four-time league champion, returns to the Games after winning Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and a bronze in 2004. “Sports have the power to bring us all together, and I’m proud to be a part of this important moment,” he said.

Gauff, who won the 2023 U.S. Open women’s singles title and the 2024 French Open women’s doubles title, told reporters that meeting James might be the most exciting part of her flag-bearing duties and that she was under strict instructions to get Olympic pins from him.

She also said that she felt wonderment at the “sense of camaraderie, patriotism and just pride in representing your country, representing yourself and honestly representing your sport in a way.”

James is not the only N.B.A. champion who will be carrying a flag in the opening ceremony. Giannis Antetokounmpo, who won a title with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021, will be one of two athletes fulfilling that duty for Greece.

Among other notable flag bearers will be the badminton star P.V. Sindhu, the only woman from India to win two Olympic medals. At these Games, she is seeking to become the first Indian woman to win a gold medal.

Ukraine will be competing in its first Olympics since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, shortly after the Beijing Winter Games. The flag bearers for Ukraine will be Elina Svitolina, a professional tennis player who has reached as high as No. 3 in the women’s singles rankings, and Mykhailo Romanchuk, a swimmer who won a silver medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and a bronze in the 800 freestyle. His wife, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, is a gold medal favorite in Paris in the women’s triple jump.

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