B-Boy Shigekix, fencing's Emura Misaki named Japanese flag-bearers for Paris 2024
B-Boy Shigekix and fencer Emura Misaki were named as Japan’s flag-bearers for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Monday (1 July).
The Japanese Olympic Committee handed the honour to the 22-year-old Shigekix, who is set to be one of the faces for Japan in Paris where breaking will make its Games debut.
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Emura, 25, is the reigning two-time world women’s sabre champion, who like Shigekix is a gold-medal bet this summer.
Shigekix said the appointment meant a lot not only individually but also for the entire breaking community.
“I’m really happy about this to be honest,” Shigekix told reporters at the Japanese Olympic Museum in Tokyo.
“When I was first told it might be me, I thought it was proof that the work we in breaking have been putting in is going somewhere.
“It goes to show how much support breaking has garnered. At Paris, I hope to make people glad they gave this responsibility to breaking.”
The Japanese delegation - the largest-ever the country is sending overseas for a Games with more than 400 athletes - are not naming a captain this year to lessen the burden on athletes.
The team captaincy had been in place for every Olympic Games since Helsinki 1952.
Sabre fencer Emura Misaki
