The Spanish tennis legend tells fellow former professional Andy Roddick that his role in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 was only communicated to him just before he received the torch from Zinedine Zidane.
But not everyone who took part in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 knew what they were going to be doing – at least not until right before they went out on stage. Just ask Rafael Nadal.
The Spanish tennis legend was the first torchbearer on the Olympic Torch’s final leg, receiving it from French football great Zinedine Zidane.
“Five minutes before, 10 minutes before,” is when he was first told exactly what he would be doing, Nadal told former U.S. tennis player Andy Roddick on the latter’s podcast “Served“.
“It was super secret. When I arrived there, honestly, I didn’t know what was going to happen because they wanted it to be completely secret, like a surprise,” Nadal said. “When it was time, when we were talking there, they started explaining to me, ‘you’re going to be there, you’re going to pick up the torch’.
“When we see the image, I’m going up stairs, going to the stage to pick up the torch, in that moment I had like two minutes of waiting there. When I realised the moment I started to cry a little bit and when I started to cry I said, ‘Shut up, stop it, it is not the moment to cry, it’s the moment to enjoy’. Try to not be too emotional, just enjoy the moment, let’s go out, do the thing, and let’s have fun.'”
Nadal, who retired after the Davis Cup Finals in November, won 14 of his 22 career Grand Slam titles at the French Open at Roland-Garros.
As Roddick put it of Nadal’s invitation to be part of a French – and Parisian – ceremony: “That takes decades of respect, having that much history in that city to the point where they’re going, ‘You know what? You’re Spanish, but you’re also one of us, you’re one of the most important figures in French sports history.'”
And it’s a moment Nadal will never forget.
“I will never have the chance to thank enough the organisers, the French people and the Olympic team [to], without being French, give me that moment,” he said. “That moment I received the torch from Zidane in front of the Eiffel Tower has been one of the most emotional moments in my tennis career, without a doubt.
“Olympics is something else. Because it’s not only tennis, this is the most important event of our world that is sport. So to be part of it was a recognition that meant a lot for me.”
