"Once in a lifetime": Kouat Noi's Olympic dream

The Darwin Salties star has big ambitions for the NBL1 season, as he prepares for South Sudan's history-making campaign in Paris.

Photo credit: May Bailey

Kouat Noi is on the brink of realising a long-held dream.

Earlier this year, the 26-year-old was named in South Sudan’s training camp longlist for the Paris Olympic games. Noi is one of many South Sudanese Australian players in the squad, which represents the youngest basketball nation in the world, having been a federation for less than a decade.

“Man, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Noi tells The Pick and Roll.

Having fled the Sudanese capital Khartoum with his family when he was just three years old, Noi grew up in Newcastle and featured in junior Australian representative teams but always held out hope of representing his homeland on the international stage.

“My dad [Ater Dhiu] played in South Sudan back in the days when it wasn’t that big. But this [Olympic berth] means our next generation can take that legacy and put our names on the map.

“I’ve always said that when I get the chance to play for South Sudan, I’m going to seize every opportunity. Coming up to this [training] camp, I’m ready, I’m in shape, and I’m going to come in and prove myself. I'm taking it very seriously and putting in all the work.

“When it comes time to play [South Sudan Olympic Group C opponents] USA and Serbia, I'll go out there and put my best foot forward and show the world who I am.”