Luana Alonso, a 20-year-old swimmer from Paraguay, was asked to leave the Olympic Village for allegedly creating an "inappropriate" environment. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Alonso missed out on qualification for the women's 100m butterfly semi-final by a mere 0.24 seconds, reports said.
"Her presence is creating an inappropriate atmosphere within Team Paraguay," read a statement from Paraguayan Olympic Committee boss Larissa Schaerer. Schaerer thanked her for proceeding as instructed and added that "it was of her own free will that she did not spend the night in the Athletes' Village." Her conduct left the country's Olympic leadership upset.
Earlier, she announced her retirement from the sport after failing to progress past the women's 100m butterfly heats event on July 27.
Who is Luana Alonso?
1. Born on September 19, 2004, Luana Alonso, a competitive swimmer from Paraguay, specialises in butterfly stroke events. She is the national record holder for Paraguay in the 100m butterfly event.
2. Alonso is currently a student at the Southern Methodist University in the US Dallas. Before her time with the university's women's swimming and diving team, she was a part of Virginia Tech for one semester, US Weekly magazine reported.
3. She came into the limelight after she first represented her country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the age of 17. Back then, she finished in the 28th place and failed to advance to the semifinals.
4. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, she made her second appearance but was eliminated in the heats after finishing sixth place. Prior to this, she also participated in the Youth Olympic Games, South American Games and the World Championships.
5. Ahead of the Olympics, Ms Alonso is said to have expressed a desire to represent the United States at the 2024 Olympics. In a live stream on Instagram before the summer Olympics, she allegedly said she preferred the US over Paraguay.
Multiple local media reported that Alonso spent time in Disneyland, instead of supporting her Paraguayan teammates.
A report in The Daily Mail stated she had become a distraction to other competitors at the Olympic Games with her “skimpy clothing and socialising with other athletes.”
On her behalf, Alonso, who has over 8,98,000 followers on Instagram, said the claims against her were untrue.
“I just wanted to clarify that I was never kicked out or expelled from anywhere, please stop spreading false information,” she said in a statement on Monday. “I don't want to make any statement but I'm not going to let lies affect me either.”
After she failed to qualify for the semifinals, Alonso said, "It was my last race. I am retiring from swimming."