Coco Gauff echoes Steph Curry ahead of Olympics: “This is a unique opportunity to unite our country”

The American flagbearer has highlighted the importance of sport in times of political turmoil

Despite the heightened political tension in the United States after two tumultuous weeks that have involved Trump’s assassination attempt and Biden dropping out of the presidential race, Coco Gauff refused to fall into the trap of politicizing the Olympics. Despite the best efforts of various journalists, Gauff was remarkably mature for her young age (she’s just 20 years old), calmly emphasizing the importance the Olympics and its capacity to ‘unite’ a remarkably un-United States.

“I feel like the Olympics are their own thing and I think that sport in our nation, if anything, can bring people together and I feel like in the past our there has been a lot of political turmoil on both sides so for me, when I look at this opportunity, I think of it as something separate to the politics,” explained the 2023 US Open winner.

Gauff, who has become a role model for many for her resilient character both on and off the court, called upon to Americans to temporarily put politics aside and unite behind Team USA as a ‘proud American’. “I think for Americans specifically the Olympics are a big thing and its one of the very few times everyone is cheering for a common goal, for Team USA and I think this is a good opportunity for our country to come together and stand behind something.”

“As athletes we all come from different walks of life, we all have different backgrounds and have different beliefs and at the end of the day we are all proud to be here, to be Olympians and to represent Team USA and similar to Steph, what I want to do during my Olympics experience is just stand for positivity and do the best I can and hopefully bring the medals home.”