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San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills and swimmer Cate Campbell will be flag bearers for the Australian Olympic team at the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Games.
Your #Tokyo2020 Australian Olympic Team Flag Bearers, @catecamp and @Patty_Mills! #TokyoTogether pic.twitter.com/iRcLz1WT9C
— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) July 7, 2021
Mills is of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal Australian descent, and the sharpshooting floor general will become Australia’s first indigenous athlete to carry the flag at an Olympic opening ceremony.
Patty will also become the third basketball player to be an Australian flag bearer, joining Lauren Jackson from the 2012 London Olympics and Andrew Gaze from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The 32-year-old has played in 33 FIBA sanctioned games for the men’s national team, accumulating 626 points and 93 assists while sporting a respectable 45.5% field goal percentage.
Australia rests in third in the FIBA World Rankings heading into the Tokyo Games. And Mills hopes to lead the Boomers to their first podium finish in his fourth consecutive Olympic appearance.
Although they aren’t favored to win the gold medal, Australia has a roster full of NBA talent, including Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Matisse Thybulle, Dante Exum, Josh Green, Joe Ingles, and of course, Patty Mills.
The Boomers will engage in a four-game exhibition schedule in Las Vegas against Argentina (July 10), the United States (July 12 and 16), and Nigeria (July 13) before heading to Tokyo.
The group stages for men’s basketball at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will run from July 25 to August 1. The knockout rounds will then follow from August 3 to August 7.