Coco Gauff was shocked.
When fellow Olympic tennis player and longtime friend Chris Eubanks informed her that she would be the U.S. flag bearer alongside LeBron James in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics on Friday, she put her hand over her mouth in disbelief.
“I didn’t expect that,” an emotional Gauff said in a video posted by Team USA at the X on Wednesday morning.
Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, will make her Olympic debut in Paris and become the first tennis player to fly the US flag. Gauff and James were selected by the US team players.
“The Olympics are my number one priority. I would say they’re on par with the Grand Slams. I’m not going to say the Olympics is better or worse just because I’ve never played before. This is my first time,” Gauff said earlier this year. “Obviously, I always want to do well and win medals.”
Gauff and the 39-year-old James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, are both competing outside the traditional Olympic world and in the spotlight year-round rather than just once every four years.
Gauff, 20, was selected for the U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo three years ago as a teenager but missed the games after testing positive for COVID-19 just before flying to Japan.
The Florida-based Gauff has won Grand Slam titles in both singles and doubles, winning her first major title in September at the U.S. Open in New York, defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the singles final, and then winning her first Grand Slam doubles title in June at the French Open with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
The clay courts at Roland Garros are the same ones used for the French Open, and the match will be played in Paris on those courts. The draw to determine the pairings will take place on Thursday, with play starting on Saturday.
Gauff will be seeded second in singles, behind Poland’s Iga Swiatek, who is currently ranked number one in the WTA rankings, and will be one of the favorites to win a medal.
She and her regular doubles partner Jessica Pegula are the No. 1 seeds in women’s doubles, and Gauff may also play in the mixed doubles, but the pairing has yet to be announced.
“I’m not feeling a lot of pressure because I really want to savor this experience,” Gauff said of her Olympic debut. “Hopefully you can do this multiple times in your lifetime, but I’m looking at it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
— The Associated Press
