CLEVELAND — The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are officially underway, with the athletes arriving to the opening ceremony via boats on the Seine River.
Northeast Ohio is once well represented among the American delegation this year, including defending gold medalist pole vaulter Katie Moon and basketball star LeBron James. And on Friday, the two came together and snapped a photo that quickly gained traction among Northeast Ohioans on social media.
"Cleveland this is for you," Moon captioned the selfie with her and James, the latter outfitted in his uniform for his duties as Team USA's male flag bearer alongside tennis star Coco Gauff.
Moon, an Olmsted Falls native, booked her ticket to Paris with a second-place finish at Team USA's trials in June after battling an achilles injury for much of the 2024 season. The Ashland University graduate won the pole vaulting gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and followed that result by winning the world championships in 2022 and sharing the title in the 2023 world championships in a tie with Australia's Nina Kennedy.
Moon will begin competition with qualifying on Monday, August 5.
James is returning to Team USA for what may well be his final Olympic Games and his first since the 2012 games in Beijing. The Americans begin pool play against Serbia on Sunday at 11:15 a.m. eastern. You can watch that game on WKYC.