Olympics torch ceremony, explained: France surprises viewers with Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, more as final torch bearers

David Suggs

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Olympics torch ceremony, explained: France surprises viewers with Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, more as final torch bearers image

Every element of this year's Olympic opening ceremony was coated with globalism.

Friday's festivities, expected to be a love letter to the city of Paris and France, delivered just that. But they also veered on all sorts of different paths, with a series of non-French stars — both inside and outside the sports world —receiving shine.

Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and Shaheem Sanchez were among the performers who were born and reside outside of France's borders. And they weren't the only non-French stars ones to receive vital responsibilities during the proceedings.

So too were Spain's Rafael Nadal, Romania's Nadia Comaneci and the United States' Serena Williams and Carl Lewis, all of whom were tasked with transporting the vaunted Olympic torch across the waters of the Seine toward its final destination.

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It was a curious decision; after all, the Olympic torch ceremony has tended to reflect the host country's athletic prowess rather than that of other lands.

A great many of the French sportsmen and sportswomen who participated in the lighting of the Olympic torch have roots far beyond the French metropole; Zinedine Zidane is Kabyle, for example, with his family emigrating from the mountainous Boukhelifa region of Algeria in the 1950s.

Nevertheless, the ties between Zidane and those other talents and France are far more tangible than is the case for Nadal, Comaneci, Williams and Lewis. That didn't stop the tournament organizers from enlisting the quartet's services for Friday's festivities.

Nadal has turned France into his playground, having won a whopping 14 French Open titles during his career. While we wouldn't call him an honorary Frenchman, it does make sense why the IOC would want his presence at the event.

The same can be said for Williams, who has three French Open titles to her name. She still trails Chris Evert (7) and Steffi Graf (6) on the all-time leaderboard. But given her and Nadal's recent decisions to step away from the game — as well as their prowess on clay at Roland-Garros — perhaps a call to grasp the Olympic torch isn't too out of left field.

Comaneci put up a glistening display in Montreal in the 1976 Games, snagging five gold medals while becoming the first gymnast to ever score a perfect 10.0 (she did it seven times that tournament). With Dion being tipped to lend her vocal chops as a French-Canadian, perhaps Comaneci's placement in the boat isn't undeserved.

As for Carl Lewis? Well, his connections to the country are a little less clear. Then again, he's a track icon who ranks as one of the sport's greatest athletes. If Nadal, Serena and Comaneci are allowed in, it's certainly understandable why Lewis got the pick, even if it wasn't all that deserved.

David Suggs

David Suggs Photo

David Suggs is a content producer at The Sporting News. A long-suffering Everton, Wizards and Commanders fan, he has learned to get used to losing over the years. In his free time, he enjoys skateboarding (poorly), listening to the likes of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and D’Angelo, and penning short journal entries.