Serena Williams spoke for millions of disappointed Olympic fans as she pulled an anguished face during the opening ceremony.
The tennis star looked worse for wear as she rode down the River Seine on a high-speed boat as a torch bearer for the Paris games.
She was joined by Rafael Nadal, nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, and former Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci as they made their way through driving rain and choppy waters.
The boat was part of a four-hour ceremony centred around the French capital’s river and it was going so fast that Nadal fretted that the flame might go out.
Williams seemed to have been enjoying the ride as she waved to fans, but she suddenly gasped and needed to quickly grab onto Comancei to keep steady.
People watching footage of the four-time Olympic gold medallist commented that they thought she looked like she might be sick and that she looked like how people felt watching the controversial opening.
One person said online: ‘This is how the rest of us felt watching it.’
Someone else said online: ‘She hated it as much as everyone else!’
Another quipped: ‘She saw the rest of the opening ceremony.’
A social media user said: ‘Much of the audience felt sick, too.’
Another said: ‘What an embarrassment to France that opening ceremony was. The French people must be fuming.’
Another person added: ‘I thought Serena was going to be sick.’
And another person said: ‘Yeah the whole thing was sickening.’
The Paris Olympics opening ceremony has been slammed by critics who dubbed it the ‘worst ever’ with poor audio caused by the near-torrential rain and some joking online that organisers needed to ‘stop the boats’.
At one point, as the long line of boats filled with athletes made its way down the Seine, an embarrassing moment saw South Korea labelled North Korea by the announcers.
The IOC said in a post on its official Korean-language X account: ‘We deeply apologise for the mistake that occurred when introducing the South Korean team during the broadcast of the opening ceremony.’
