Carl Lewis, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams endure rocky Seine boat journey with Olympic flame

Carl Lewis, as a nine-time Olympic champion and the IOC’s sportsman of the twentieth century, has confronted down some formidable foes through the years. However at Friday’s opening ceremony for the Paris Video games he almost got here unstuck in opposition to his hardest opponent but: a rocking boat.

The previous sprinter joined fellow gold medalists Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Nadia Comăneci on a ship that roared down the Seine carrying the Olympic flame to the standard cauldron lighting ceremony.

Nevertheless, it quickly grew to become clear that this was to be no pleasure cruise. Throughout a journey that appeared to final solely barely much less time than Nadal’s epic five-setter in opposition to Roger Federer within the 2008 Wimbledon remaining, the Spaniard appeared fearful that the flame would blow out within the sturdy headwinds, whereas Williams and Lewis appeared understandably alarmed on the prospect of holding a unadorned flame in a single hand whereas making an attempt to maintain their steadiness with the opposite. Solely Comăneci, maybe unsurprisingly for a lady who received two Olympic golds on the steadiness beam, appeared untroubled because the boat bobbed up and down. At one level Williams appeared to gasp in concern and maintain on to Comăneci for reassurance.

“Carl Lewis completely hating this boat journey is already my 2024 Olympic spotlight,” stated one person on X.

“Fave a part of the ceremony has gotta be Carl Lewis, Serena Williams et al on the boat, with life jackets on, getting soaked and never figuring out what the heck was occurring!,” wrote one other.

The 4 athletes – and the flame – ultimately made it to dry land, the place the torch was handed to quite a lot of French sporting legends earlier than the cauldron was lit by two of the house nation’s Olympic champions, judoka Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-José Pérec.