LeBron James named U.S. flag bearer for 2024 Olympics as gymnastics team arrives in Paris

Athletes from around the world are giving the public an inside look at "one of the most exciting parts" of the Games: the Olympic merch.

Each country provides its athletes with suitcases full of gear to sport in the Olympic Village, including training garb and elevated designs for the opening ceremony.

Evy Leibfarth, who is representing Team USA in canoeing, unboxed her Nike and Ralph Lauren hauls for her TikTok audience.

"Not me wanting to be in the Olympics just for the merch," a user said in a comment.

Sarah Douglas, a Canadian sailing athlete, shared the country's Olympic kit. Canada-based activewear company Lululemon designed the team's gear.

Danish handball player Althea Reinhardt unveiled two large suitcases of patriotic garb, including sneakers, workout clothes and a backpack.

On Oct. 13, Christina Assi, a photographer for the French news agency Agence France-Presse, was injured by a tank shell reporting on the conflict between Israel and armed groups in southern Lebanon. 

Yesterday, she carried the Olympic torch in Vincennes, France, “to pay tribute to those who have fallen” doing their jobs as journalists, she said, according to a news release from AFP. 

In the same attack, the shell, which AFP said was fired by an Israeli tank, killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured the six other journalists, including Dylan Collins, who was with Assi yesterday in Vincennes.

Assi's right leg was amputated. 

“Carrying the Olympic Flame is an emotional experience, particularly after surviving a targeted attack while I was on assignment. My story is just one among many others in a year that has claimed the lives of over a hundred journalists,” Assi said. “By bearing this torch, we honour the sacrifice of those who have fallen and draw attention to the urgent need to protect those who continue to report despite the mental and physical toll.”

NBC "TODAY" show contributor Ally Love shares some stylish fashion trends you can wear while watching the Olympic Games and supporting Team USA.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that securing the opening ceremony is "an all-hands-on-deck effort."

"It’s something we’ve been working on not just for months but for years to help our French counterparts be in a position to deter and prevent terrorist attacks in the Olympics," Sullivan said Friday at the Aspen Security Forum.

He added that the U.S. isn't trying to "bigfoot" France's preparations.

"The French are damn capable counterterrorism professionals," he said.

The moon rises behind the Eiffel Tower and the Olympic rings ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games yesterday.

PARIS — With wars raging in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Olympics President Thomas Bach today called for the world to see the upcoming games as a hope for peace.

“When our founder, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the Olympic Games 130 years ago — right here in Paris — he saw it as a way to promote peace among all nations and people of the world," Bach said at the ceremonial opening of Olympic Village.

"He was a true ambassador for peace. Today, you — the Olympic athletes — you are the peace ambassadors of our time."

Married American Olympic fencers Gerek Meinhardt and Lee Kiefer are sharing a peek of the grub fueling the world’s greatest at Paris’ Olympic Village. 

The couple shared a TikTok video taking viewers through the village's dining hall that offered four categories of cuisine: Asian, halal, French and world.  For breakfast they opted for the world category, which offered an array of fresh fruit, a salad bar, yogurt, baked goods like crepes and cookies, an array of French cheeses and croissants (of course) and a hot bar with eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, pancakes, sausages and bacon. 

The couple shared ratings for their meal, giving the Greek yogurt and the fresh mango five stars, the fried eggs three stars, the mushrooms five stars and the bacon four stars.

For lunch, they opted for a halal meal, chowing down on couscous, a turkey skewer, sweet potatoes spinach, peppers, mushrooms and chicken sausage. 

In true French fashion, the athletes’ lounge in the village also has a boulangerie (bakery) whipping up fresh baguettes and croissants daily.

Bon appétit! 

Fresh off the Tour de France, a number of riders are turning their attention to the Olympic road race on Aug. 3.

For the first time in its history, the Tour finished in Nice, as Olympic preparations are underway in Paris. For the third time, it was won by Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar, whose dominance earned him six stage wins and kept him in the yellow jersey from the fourth stage onward.

An Olympic medal would add to his already successful summer (before the Tour, Pogačar won the Giro d’Italia, a rare and revered double last achieved in 1998). The Tokyo bronze medalist is among the riders on the list of entries for the road race.

The world's best athletes have flocked to Paris for the Olympics, but their beds in the Olympic Village appear to be a far cry from prize-winning comfort.

Tilly Kearns, an Australian Olympic water polo player, shared a video on TikTok yesterday captioned: “First night on the Olympic cardboard bed”

“It’s actually rock solid,” she said, pressing on the mattress with a laugh. “You can flip them over, apparently there’s a softer side, but that was the soft side!” 

Harry McNulty, a member of Ireland’s national rugby sevens team, also shared a TikTok video testing out the mattress' durability.

“Supposedly the structure of this bed will collapse if there’s more than one person on it,” McNulty said, jumping on the bed. His teammate Jordan Conroy then threw his body on the bed and slumped right off. In true rugby fashion, Conroy jumped back onto the bed, and McNulty dived on top of him.

“Think it’s all good," McNulty said with a thumbs up to the camera. 

A viewer of Kearns' video wrote: “Nah that’s like pre event sabotage.” 

“I can’t fathom how pro athletes are given cardboard beds to sleep on,” a commenter wrote, while another added, “I wonder how many Memory Foam mattress toppers have been overnighted to Paris so far.”

American Olympic gymnast Suni Lee commented on Kearns' video: “omg I might cry.”