The Nigeria women’s basketball team, known as D’Tigress, was not allowed to board the boat for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
An anonymous source told The Associated Press on Friday, “The team was turned away by a Nigerian official who said there were too many people on board.” The Nigerian delegation has not yet commented publicly on the incident.
The team had arrived at the boarding area for the boat but was denied entry. The players and coaches were then directed to the athletes’ village.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Nigerian delegation managed to board a boat shared with teams from Niger and Norway.
Before traveling to Paris, the team received logistical details for the event and completed a 2-hour, 28-minute journey covering 138 miles (222 km). The D’Tigress team had been part of a bus convoy from Lille, where preliminary basketball games are being held, and were escorted by police.
It is uncertain if the team managed to reach the pick-up point for the return journey to Lille after the ceremony or if they had to stay in Paris overnight.
Nigeria is competing in its third Olympics and will play their first match on Monday against Australia.
D’Tigress holds the only Olympic win for an African nation, achieved in the 2004 Athens Games when they defeated Korea in the 11th-place contest.
