Patty Mills will be denied the opportunity to carry an Indigenous flag or adjust his uniform to represent his culture in the Tokyo opening ceremony, according to Australia’s Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman.
Mills- along with swimmer Cate Campbell- were announced as Australia’s flag bearers on Wednesday night for the Tokyo Olympic games starting in just over two weeks.
Chesterman couldn’t have been happier for the pair, telling SEN's Dwayne’s World “(They’re both) champion athletes and champion people, and the announcement resonated well with the Australian team and Australian public.”
“They’ll do a terrific job; I know they were both thrilled.”
However, he also revealed Mills will be unable to visibly represent his culture when he introduces Australia to the Olympics, citing Olympic rules.
“The rules are pretty clear that you walk in with your national flag,” Chesterman said.
“We’ve worked really hard on our Indigenous national recognition program; every Australian team member has a piece of uniform with our unique Indigenous design that showcases the footsteps of 52 other Indigenous athletes who have been to the games before Tokyo.”
When asked if Mills would be able to modify his uniform by wearing Indigenous coloured shoes or an additional Indigenous flag on his uniform, Chesterman had a similar answer.
“No, so uniform is the Australian uniform and he’ll walk in with that. I haven’t discussed any other details on what he’d like to do,” he said.
“The rules are very tight on this, there’s 206 national flags walking in and the idea is to celebrate those flags.
“We’ll work with Patty and with others to make sure we bring those important issues to the floor.
“We’ve got 16 Indigenous athletes in our team, that’s more than ever before and we really understand the importance of being able to promote sport among Indigenous communities and I think Patty will certainly do that at every opportunity he can.”
Mills will form a key aspect of Australia’s basketball hopes at Tokyo, as the men’s team have never won an Olympic medal in the sport.