Nigerian-born Greek basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo is to become the first black athlete to bear the flag for Greece at the Olympics.
Antetokounmpo, whose Nigerian parents emigrated to Greece where he was born, is a two-time NBA MVP, and led his team, the Milwaukee Bucks, to the 2021 NBA title,
He will carry the Greek flag alongside race walker Antigoni Ntrismpioti in Paris on July 26.
Ntrismpioti won gold medals in the 20 km walk and 35 km race walk at the 2022 European Athletics Championships, the first golden double for Greece at the event.
The president of the Greek Olympic Committee, Spyros Kapralos, was quoted as saying that choosing Antetokounmpo to carry the flag in Paris was a unanimous decision, adding that both flagbearers will “lift our country high.”
The Greek men’s basketball team qualified for its first Olympic Games since 2008, after beating Croatia in front of a home crowd in Piraeus recently, the BBC reported.
The 29-year-old, who was drafted by Milwaukee Bucks in 2013, was in tears after the game.
“It’s an incredible feeling. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to play in the Olympic Games,” he said after qualification.
The BBC further reported that for the first 18 years of his life, Antetokounmpo could not travel outside Greece and was effectively stateless, having no papers either from Greece or Nigeria. He was eventually issued Greek citizenship in May 2013, less than two months before the NBA draft.
In 2023, Antetokounmpo made his first ever trip to his homeland, Nigeria, which was captured in a 30-minute documentary by the global messaging service, WhatsApp, titled, Ugo: A Homecoming Story.
Antetokounmpo’s two other younger brothers are also professional basketball players.
