Jason Day will finally play golf at the Australian Olympics in Paris

BRISBANE, Australia — Eight years after throwing away his first chance, a still-repentant Jason Day will finally reach the Olympics as part of Australia’s brother-sister golf team for the Paris Games.

In 2016, Day was ranked No. 1 when he decided not to play in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, saying he was worried about going to Brazil when the mosquito-borne Zika virus was spreading.

“The reason for my decision is my concern about the spread of the Zika virus and the risk it may pose to my wife’s future pregnancies and our future family members,” Day said at the time, while dismissing the possibility of pregnancy. to compete in Rio.

He apologizes for doing that.

“I think I selfishly made a decision about my plan and how I felt at the time,” Day said on a conference call Friday. “I was emotionally and physically exhausted.

“It was a lot on my plate. I was number 1 in the world. You learn from past mistakes … but looking back, I should have left. A lot of people would have killed to have the chance to represent their country. .”

The Australian Olympic Committee on Friday said Min Woo Lee will join Suku in the men’s team while Minjee Lee and Hannah Green will form the women’s team.

The Lees are brothers and were both born in Perth, Western Australia. Minjee is 28 and Min Woo is 25. Their parents, Soonam and Clara Lee, moved from South Korea to Australia in the early 1990s.

Minjee Lee will become the first Australian golfer to compete in three Olympics, Green returns for his second Games while Min Woo Lee will join Suku in making his Olympic debut.

The four players all qualified because of their International Golf Federation Olympic status at the end of the two-year ranking period. Green and Minjee Lee finished the season ranked seventh and 11th. Day and Min Woo are the top male golfers in Australia at 27th and 36th respectively.

Green has matched Australia’s best in golf with a tie for fifth in Tokyo three years ago and has won two LPGA Tour events this year. Minjee Lee has won 10 LPGA.

Day has 13 PGA Tour wins including the major — the 2015 PGA Championship. Min Woo Lee is the reigning Australian PGA Champion and achieved a career world ranking of No. 31 in 2024.

Day said his lasting Olympic memories were of the strong swimming teams from Australia when he was at school in Queensland near Brisbane. He also tracked star Cathy Freeman’s gold medal in the 400 meters at the Sydney Games in 2000, an iconic Australian sporting moment.

“When I was growing up, I never thought about the Olympics because golf just became a sport,” said Day. “But at the beginning of the year it was on my list to represent Australia, so it’s great to achieve that.”

Although golf appeared in several Olympics in the early 20th century — including in Paris at the second edition of the Games in 1900 — it returned more than 100 years later in Rio.

This year’s Olympic tournament will be played at Le Golf National in Guyancourt near Paris. Men have been competing since Aug. 1-4 with women from Aug. 7-10.