Serena Williams probably wasn’t the only athlete who struggled on the River Seine during the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris on Friday night.
Paris 2024 officially got underway but for the first time in history, athletes were not paraded inside the host city stadium as they were instead put on boats and sent along the Seine to wave to spectators.
Part of the Olympic torch was also carried on the Seine as Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal was on board a boat with United States track and field legend Carl Lewis, former Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci and Williams.
However, both Lewis and Williams looked worse for wear during some stages of their journey.
At one point, television cameras caught Serena waving to the crowd before she took a deep breath as the boat passed under a bridge.
Comaneci then grabbed onto the arm of the 23-time Grand Slam winner as she looked to regain her balance.
The boat then jolted again, causing Serena to momentarily lose balance once more, while Lewis was seen with his hands out by his side and focused straight ahead in order to stop himself from swaying.
The moment did not escape the attention of BBC commentator Andrew Cotter, who said: ‘Nearly lost Serena there.’
Moments earlier, Cotter joked: ‘Carl’s thinking he didn’t sign up for this.’
The boat then pulled up to a jetty where Nadal passed on the flame from his torch to retired French tennis player Amelie Mauresmo, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006.
Earlier in the torch relay, Nadal looked absolutely thrilled as he was given the Olympic torch by former France and Real Madrid midfielder Zinedine Zidane.
Nadal, who is competing at the Olympics in Paris, was born in Madrid and is a huge fan of Zidane’s former team.
Meanwhile, not everyone was a fan of Paris’ novel idea for the opening ceremony away from the stadium with former Team GB swimmer, Rebecca Adlington, who won two golds and two bronze medals during her career, claiming that the show was ‘disjointed’.
‘I think it’s one of those where it’s a different experience when you’re watching it on telly to when you’re out there,’ she said in the BBC studio in Paris.
‘The weather isn’t helping, it has not stopped raining so I think being cold and it’s just one of those where it’s slightly tarnished the experience.
‘It wasn’t my favourite opening ceremony I have to admit just because I think it was so different and so ambitious, I think I’m probably stuck in my ways.
‘I like the stadium, I like when it’s all together and I like when you can see different things going off where this felt a bit disjointed in parts.’
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