LeBron James Selected as Team USA’s Flagbearer for Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony
LeBron James received the news of the honor on Monday, making him the first men’s basketball player to be chosen for this prestigious role.
LeBron James Selected as Team USA’s Flagbearer for Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony LeBron James wasn’t entirely sure about the significance of the opening ceremony when he first participated in the Olympics back in 2004.
LeBron James This time around, he will take center stage.
His fellow U.S. Olympians have chosen LeBron James to be the male flagbearer for Team USA at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games on Friday night. He becomes only the third basketball player and the first male player to carry the U.S. flag at the start of an Olympics, following Dawn Staley at the Athens Games in 2004 and Sue Bird at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
James, who is 39 years old, received the news of this prestigious honor on Monday in London, just hours before the U.S. men’s team was set to play its final pre-Olympics exhibition game against World Cup champion Germany.
“There’s obviously the utmost respect for who he is as a person and a player and how good he is,” said Stephen Curry, a fellow U.S. star and first-time Olympian, earlier this month about James, whom he has faced off against four times in the NBA Finals and will now team up with for the first time officially.
The female U.S. flagbearer will be announced in the coming days. In 2020, the International Olympic Committee mandated that national delegations would have two flagbearers — one male and one female — at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, a move aimed at promoting gender equality. The U.S. is expected to field nearly 600 athletes at the Paris Games, with about 53% of them being female.
James, a global icon and four-time NBA champion who is also the league’s all-time leading scorer, will compete in the Olympics for the fourth time. He previously won bronze in 2004, gold in Beijing in 2008, and gold again in London in 2012. He has participated in the opening ceremony at each of his previous three Olympics.
This time, the ceremony will feature a unique twist: Thousands of athletes will be part of a procession sailing along the River Seine at sunset towards the Eiffel Tower. The route covers 6 kilometers (3.7 miles), with approximately 320,000 spectators expected to watch from the riverbank and an estimated 1 billion viewers tuning in worldwide.
Not all Olympic athletes participate in the opening ceremony; many skip it due to logistical reasons, such as needing to compete the following day. James and the U.S. men’s team, who are four-time defending gold medalists, will begin their Olympic campaign on Sunday against Serbia in Lille, France.
In accordance with tradition set by the IOC, Greece — featuring NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo among its flagbearers — will lead the procession, followed by the Refugee Olympic Team and approximately 200 other national delegations. Team USA is slated to march second-to-last in the parade, as Los Angeles is set to host the next Summer Games in 2028.
As the host nation, France will conclude the opening ceremony procession. Its men’s basketball team, which includes NBA rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama, begins Olympic competition on Saturday and is not expected to be present during the opening festivities.
