Coco Gauff Selected as Team USA’s Female Flagbearer for 2024 Summer Olympics: ‘It Made Me…see more

Coco Gauff Selected as Team USA’s Female Flagbearer for 2024 Summer Olympics: ‘It Made Me Cry’
The tennis star will join LeBron James in the prominent position at the opening ceremony

Coco Gauff will wave the flag for Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympics — literally.

The 20-year-old tennis champion has been picked as the female flagbearer during the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games on July 26 — an honor that puts her in the history books as the first U.S. tennis player to be a flagbearer for Team USA.

She’ll join NBA champ and three-time Olympic medalist LeBron James, who was chosen on July 22 to be the male flagbearer. He’s also the first men’s basketball player to carry the American flag at the opening ceremony.

The Today show was first to report of Gauff’s role, sharing exclusive video of the moment she was told and speaking with her live on Wednesday, July 24.
“I was completely shocked,” Gauff said. “I never would have crossed my mind. I have no words, honestly.”

“It made me cry. I didn’t want to cry in front of my teammates.. but when I called my mom, I started crying. I think it’s even more special — even now I get emotional thinking about it — that so many incredible people just think that I’m worth of this. It means a lot, truly.”

Gauff added that she’s excited to meet James, a star she’s chatted with on social media but never in person.

“He DM’ed me once on Instagram with words of encouragement and congratulations but I’ve never actually met him,” she said. “I’ve seen him in person at a bunch of Miami Heat games when I was a kid, and some recent games. But I’ve never actually met him. So this is a cool circumstance to be meeting him and I guess I’ll actually get to know him a little bit.”