Paris Olympics 2024: Who is Luana Alonso, Paraguayan swimmer kicked out of Olympic village

By Sreejith CR | First Published Aug 8, 2024, 4:57 PM IST

At the Paris Olympics 2024, Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso has been asked to leave the Olympics village for allegedly creating an "inappropriate atmosphere". The 20-year-old missed out on qualification for the women's 100m butterfly semi-final by a bare margin of 0.24 seconds.

Paraguay swimmer Luana Alonso was reportedly told to leave the Paris Olympics village premises for making "inappropriate atmosphere". The 20-year-old had failed to qualify for women's 100m butterfly semi-finals by a bare margin of 0.24 seconds last month.

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"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.

Olympics swimmer Luana Alonso has been REMOVED from the athletes village for creating an 'inappropriate environment' 😳 pic.twitter.com/wKRYlpPVkh

— Mail Sport (@MailSport)

Alonso, who was born on September 19, 2004 in Paraguay, had announced her retirement from swimming after finishing sixth in the women's 100m butterfly with a timing of 1:03.09 at the Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, she is her country's national record holder in the 100m butterfly event.

The Paraguayan came into the limelight after representing her country at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, at the age of just 17. She finished her campaign at the 28th position and failed to make it to the semifinals.

Even before the Paris Olympics, she expressed her desire to represent United States. During an Instagram post she preferred the USA over her own country Paraguay. Apart from the Summer Olympics, she has also competed in the Youth Olympic Games, South American Games and the World Championships.

The talented swimmer is currently a student at the Methodist University in the US Dallas. Prior to that, she was a part of the Virginia Tech for one semester, US Weekly magazine reported.

On her behalf, Alonso, who has over 8,98,00 followers on Instagram, said the claims against her were not true.

“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.”

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