Coco Gauff excited to meet LeBron James at Olympics but won’t pester him

Coco Gauff plans to avoid pestering LeBron James when they share flag-bearing duties for the United States during Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony along the Seine River.

Yes, the reigning U.S. Open champion said Thursday, she will heed her tennis teammates’ request that she ask the NBA‘s career leading scorer for some commemorative pins from the 2024 Olympics. No problem there. But what Gauff doesn’t want to do — excited as she is to meet James — is be a bother.

“I don’t want to ask him too much about advice or anything like that,” the 20-year-old tennis star said about the 39-year-old basketball star in an interview with The Associated Press, “because I feel like he’s trying to probably enjoy the experience as much as possible, too.”

Accomplished as she already is, Gauff sounds like any wide-eyed fan when describing some of her interactions in the athletes’ village. She met swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles and looks forward to running into Sha’Carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas of track fame.

“I am thriving in the village,” Gauff said at a news conference. “I feel like a little kid, like trick or treating on Halloween.”

She is the youngest flag bearer for her country at a Summer Games and the first tennis player to receive the honor. As someone who grew up watching and admiring the Williams sisters — and whose first Olympic memory is following along on TV at age 8 while Serena won gold at London in 2012 — Gauff found it a bit hard to believe she is the first American athlete from her sport to get this prominent role.

“I almost feel like I’m having a little bit of impostor syndrome,” she said at the news conference, “but I am going to try to just take it in and be happy for myself.”

Gauff, who is based in Florida, missed the Tokyo Games three years ago after testing positive for COVID-19 right before she was supposed to board a plane to fly to Japan. Once tennis begins Saturday on the clay of Roland Garros, site of the French Open, she’ll be participating in three events at these Olympics: singles, in which she is seeded No. 2 behind Iga Swiatek; women’s doubles with Jessica Pegula; and mixed doubles with Taylor Fritz.

First things first, though.

Gauff said she cried when she first heard about the flag job from teammate Chris Eubanks — but went off to a corner when the tears came, so as not to have everyone else on the U.S. roster see — and cried again when delivering the news to her mom over the phone (both of her parents arrived in Paris on Thursday and will be watching the opening ceremony in-person).

“I know this will be a memory I will remember for the rest of my life,” Gauff said.

Eubanks, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist last year, has been a friend of Gauff’s for years — “basically a brother,” she said — and nominated her to carry the flag.

“The way that she’s kind of handled all of the variety — the success, the ups and downs of the tour, that she’s kind of experienced — she’s handled it all with class, and I think people are starting to see her as more than just a tennis player,” Eubanks said. “That’s one of the major things that being a flag bearer represents. Not just your accomplishments on the court; what you kind of bring to the world.”

Like a champion athlete scouting a future opponent, Gauff did some research online to try to figure out what she needs to know about flag bearing, but didn’t come up with much, other than realizing that instead of two flags — one for her, one for James — they will share the duties Friday.

She was eager to hear more about what it will all entail.

Her biggest concerns?

“Well, I just hope I don’t drop it,” Gauff said. “And I hope it’s not too hot. Those are the two things I think I’ve been thinking about the most.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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