Dennis Schröder will be Germany’s flag bearer at the 2024 Olympics

Dennis Schröder will carry the German team’s flag together with a German athlete at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris on Friday. According to information from the FAZ, the basketball professional won the vote of the public and the athletes nominated for the games, which was concluded on Monday.

Schröder prevailed against tennis professional and Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion Alexander Zverev and sports shooter Christian Reitz, who was the 2016 Olympic champion with the rapid-fire pistol, among other things. The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) declined to comment when asked and referred to a press conference on Wednesday.

The DOSB had previously brought forward this planned press conference with the flag-bearer duo from Thursday to Wednesday, 2:30 p.m., in the “German House” in Paris. The candidates in the vote for the German flag-bearer were Olympic dressage champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, judoka Anna-Maria Wagner, who won bronze twice in 2021, and soccer player Alexandra Popp.

Schröder is only the second basketball player to serve as flag bearer

Schröder had already announced months ago that he wanted to carry the flag. At the time, he did not yet know that the position was not determined, but was the result of an election. For him, he said before the nomination, being elected as flag bearer would “show what incredible opportunities and possibilities this country can offer children and people with dark skin and a migrant background”: “A little black boy from Braunschweig, that would be something.”

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The captain of the basketball world champions, who on Monday in the narrowly lost game against the United States (88:92) once again demonstrated his enormous speed, self-confidence and ability to pass in a team, is the first German athlete with dark skin in this role and the second basketball player. In 2008, the choice fell on the then star of the Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki from Würzburg. “Dirk Nowitzki only said positive things. He said that it was one of the greatest things he had ever done. And he said: It will change your life,” Schröder said.

His national team coach Gordon Herbert recently reported on Schröder’s pride in “being captain of the national team and representing his country.” The 30-year-old Brooklyn Nets professional, who led the national team to the World Cup title last autumn and was named the tournament’s most valuable player, has to accept one disadvantage, however. The opening ceremony begins on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. and lasts around three hours. He will not be back in Lille until well after midnight, where the Germans’ first preliminary round match is scheduled for Saturday: against Japan at 1:30 p.m.

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