Family drives Kuol's Olympic Games ambition

Bul Kuol is one of nine faces from NBL24 to have been named to the South Sudanese extended Olympic squad, and the star wing says his main reason for electing to represent the country of his birth is to make his family proud.

The 27-year-old was forced to miss South Sudan’s maiden World Cup campaign due to injury, but he looks set to be a near lock to be named to the final roster that could also include the likes of NBA star Bol Bol, Boomers representative Thon Maker, and recently crowned NBL champion Majok Deng.

Kuol, who was recently announced as a Sydney King, arrived in Australia when he was nine years old, and he told SEN how much pulling on the South Sudanese jersey means to his family.

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“Australia has become my home – I’ve been in Australia since 2006 – so I’ve been here more than half my life,” he said.

“I moved to Australia when I was nine but my homeland, South Sudan means so much to me with the history, and it means a lot to my mum.

“That’s one of the biggest reasons I’m doing it, because it means so much to my mum.

"She doesn’t necessarily care so much about basketball but for some reason her, my grandmas, my relatives, my uncles, everybody has paid attention to when I represented my country so for them it means the world, it’s special for me as well.

“She came to Australia and went to work. She had to provide for me, my brothers and sisters and my families back home.

“We have polygamy, so my dad has three wives – my mum was the first. We came to Australia and she looked after the whole family, she did manual labour and worked really hard and she made it happen.”

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While the Boomers named an extended 22-man roster from which the Olympic team will be selected, South Sudan took their player pool one step further and named 50 players in its extended squad.

While the likes of Bol Bol and Kouat Noi will be hoping to represent their country for the first time in their careers, Kuol is already enshrined within his national team’s setup, having represented the Bright Stars on multiple occasions.

He says despite the competition for spots on the plane to Paris, he's confident of being right in the mix.

“They’ve got to do it (pick the squad) by June 25, but they’ve got time. That’s the day we have to report in for camp,” Kuol said.

“At the end of the day, it’s out of my control, but I should have a good chance.

“Everything kind of depends on taking care of my body and making sure I’m in the best shape possible and basically be given the chance to go and earn it.”