Coco excited to meet LeBron but promises not to pester him at the Olympics

PARIS (AP):

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

Yes, the reigning US Open champion said she would 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. 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.”

“I almost feel like I’m having a little bit of imposter 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 on Saturday on the clay of Roland Garros, site of the French Open, she will 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 US roster see – and cried again when delivering the news to her mom over the phone (both of her parents arrived in Paris yesterday 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.