Patty Mills and Cate Campbell named as Australia's Olympic flagbearers for Tokyo

Mills has been named, alongside Cate Campbell, as the flagbearer for his fourth Olympics later this month.

The pair are Australia's 24^th and 25^th flagbearers to represent the country's 33 different sports at the Games.

Mills will be the first Indigenous Australian flagbearer at the Games and said it was incredible to be named.

"As a proud Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam man it's incredible. A very passionate moment I can feel in my bones. But what does it actually mean to me to be a flagbearer," he said.

"My answer comes from how this particular person in past years, in this role, has impacted me. It's leadership, representation and it's insanely meaningful. It's inspiring. It's symbolic. It's emblematic.

"But I think my honest answer would be, what does it mean to everyone else? What does it mean to the team? What does it mean to everyone in Australia? The thousands of ex-pats living around the world? What does it mean to the next generation? The people that have come before us?

"Because those are the people I proudly represent and will carry the flag for. As the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flag Bearer my connection between our country - the land, the sky, the sea, our culture, our history and this particular moment runs extremely deep."

Five-time Olympian Andrew Gaze had been putting the 32-year-old's name forward for the position prior to the announcement on Wednesday night.

"He has made an outstanding contribution to the Olympics and the Australian team, and the way he's represented us on the international stage, either with the Spurs or at the World Championships has been exceptional," Gaze said.

"I think he's thoroughly deserving; now every Olympics with a nation like Australia, there's always going to be large number of candidates but he is certainly the equal of most."

It is the second time two flagbearers will be named by the Australian Olympic Committee to carry the flag - the first was in 1980 in Moscow - as the International Olympic Committee has asked every nation to supply a male and female flagbearer.

As the Australian flag bearer at the 2000 Sydney Olympics opening ceremony, the 55-year-old had some words of wisdom for Mills.

"This one is going to be something completely different," Gaze said.

"Regardless I think that he will still be incredibly honoured and very proud of carrying the flag in. As I was told before I went around, go out there and enjoy yourself, and have fun."

The Boomers are yet to claim a podium finish in an Olympics, with their top finish as fourth. The national side has managed to finish fourth four times since their first Games in 1956.

In Tokyo the side will face Germany, Italy and Nigeria in their group and will be required to finish in the top two in their pool to progress, or will have to have the next two top spots across the three pools.

Although Australia has been pushing for a medal for the last 30 years, Gaze believes this year's team has the means to go the distance.

"We've been saying that for the last 30 years, and we have been knocking at the door and come very close," he said.

"I think again we'll be in that category, but in a tournament like this which is some respects has gotten even harder with the format of the tournament changing significantly, it makes it a bit more sudden death than before.

"They are well positioned to have a really good crack at going somewhere where no other Australian team has ever gone before.

"It's very, very close and they will go into this tournament as one of the favourites."

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Gaze said Ben Simmons bowing out of the team was disappointing but he could appreciate and respect his decision.

""We've got a really good team, obviously it would have been great to have Ben there but even without Ben I think we demonstrated a couple of years ago in China in the World Cup, we can play at a really high level," he said.

"It's a different set of circumstances and I think when he committed to being a part of it, which was quite some time ago, the world has changed a lot, and the NBA season has changed changed a lot.

"He's had to go through some personal challenges with his form throughout that final series, so I can understand why the timing probably wasn't right for him but I think that he is still a very young man and hopefully in the future, he will at some point in time, represent Australia."