Online commentators were also quick to spot a potential controversy. “What’s this kiss between Oudéa and Macron??!” wrote one commentator. “Brigitte won’t like it,” wrote another.

Some were more critical. “I find this photo indecent, it’s not worthy of a president and a minister.” 

“Woah! That’s what I call team building. When I kiss a colleague, she doesn’t hook the back of my neck,” said another.

Others pointed to other photos of her kissing athletes in similar fashion, insisting she was just passionate about the Games.

Ms Oudéa-Castera has courted controversy in recent months.

Mr Macron had given her the double responsibility of sports and education minister but he was forced to drop the latter post after she caused uproar by saying she had taken her daughter out of a state elementary school and put her into an exclusive private one because of a chronic “lack of supply teachers”.

Ahead of the Games, Ms Oudéa-Castera appeared in a full wetsuit with a bathing cap and dived into the Seine to demonstrate it was safe for swimming.

However, the men’s triathlon event scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning had to be postponed because of pollution. Storms forecast for Tuesday tonight threaten to scupper the event altogether.