Featured Image Credit: Instagram/luanalonsom
Topics: Olympics, Social Media, Sport
Joshua Nair
An athlete that was removed from the Paris Olympics village for creating an 'inappropriate environment' for others has explained her decision to retire.
Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso was staying at the Olympic Village throughout the games, living, eating and socialising with fellow competitors.
But this week, it has been announced that team Paraguay made the decision to effectively kick her out of the village, without letting her fulfil her stay until the competition's close on Sunday (11 August) along with the other athletes, according to The Daily Mail.
The decision was made after the 20-year-old decided to retire from swimming following her participation in the 100m butterfly heats.
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The University student under-performed in the heats, finishing in her heat with a time of 1:03.09, missing out on qualification for the semi finals by a huge margin, with the time being over 3.1 seconds slower than her personal best.
However, her behaviour after this was considered 'inappropriate', with the head of the COP mission, Larissa Schaerer, making the decision to remove her from the village.
She stated: "Her presence is creating an inappropriate atmosphere within Team Paraguay.
"We thank her for proceeding as instructed, as it was of her own free will that she did not spend the night in the Athletes' Village."
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They didn't expand any further on what the 'inappropriate' behaviour was, but the 20-year-old has returned to the US, where she goes to university in Dallas, Texas.
The decision was made after her announcement to quit swimming on the spot after her participation at this summer's games, on social media to her 500,000 Instagram followers.
Alonso later explained the decision to Claro Sports, saying: "People, my decision was made a long time ago! It wasn't because of the games! So nothing, I just have to thank everyone who always supported me." she said.
"It didn’t happen the way I wanted it to. I sincerely apologise to Paraguay, but I did what I could, despite several things that happened to me before. So, I’m happy and also to retire here with a full stadium and finally have the Olympic Games."
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She received a lot of messages of support online, after she put a post up that announced her decision to step back from the sport.
Alonso wrote: "Swimming: thank you for allowing me to dream, you taught me to fight, to try, perseverance, sacrifice, discipline and many more.
"I gave you part of my life and I don't change it for anything in the world because I lived the best experiences of my life, you gave me thousands of joys, friends from other countries that I will always carry them in my heart, unique opportunities.
"It’s not goodbye, it’s see you soon," she concluded.
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The ex-swimmer recently posted videos on her Instagram account which suggested that she touched down in the US recently, as she could be seen driving towards a border control crossing - however, she has not yet addressed the statement.
Alonso may have had a short career, but she impressively holds the Paraguayan records in the 50m, 100m and 200m Butterfly events.
The swimmer made her Olympic debut aged just 17 at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and is one of the youngest in the sport to call their time.
LADbible has reached out to Alonso and POC for comment.