LeBron James named as Team USA’s male flagbearer for Paris Olympics opening ceremony

LeBron James was selected by his Team USA peers across all sports to be their 2024 flag bearer for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

James became the first men’s player selected as a flag bearer following women’s basketball stars Dawn Staley in 2024 Athens Games and Sue Bird for the Tokyo Games in 2021.

The four-time NBA champion and all-time NBA leading scorer who will make his fourth appearance in the Summer games will lead a boat of American athletes down the Seine River where the Olympic Opening Ceremony will be held.

He called the opportunity an “utmost honor” and said, “It’s special to get an opportunity to represent your country in another fashion. I understand how prestigious this moment is… it will live on forever.”

Meanwhile, the female U.S. flag bearer will be revealed in the coming days. The International Olympic Committee decided in 2020 that national delegations would have two flag bearers - one male and one female at the opening ceremony of an Olympics, a move to promote gender parity. In the nearly 600 athletes delegation of Team USA in the Paris Olympics, 53% of them are female.

The USA boat delegation will be the next to last to ride down the Seine river during the ceremony while the host team France will be the last boat to float. Thousands of athletes, in front of around 300,000 spectators, will be part of a flotilla sailing the River Seine at sunset toward the Eiffel Tower.

On the other hand, another NBA MVP and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo will be one of the two flag bearers of Greece. By IOC custom, Greece will lead the procession, followed by the Refugee Olympic team and then about 200 more national delegations.