Featured Image Credit: Instagram/luanalonsom
Topics: Olympics, Sport, News, World News, Instagram
Olivia Burke
Topics: Olympics, Sport, News, World News, Instagram
The Paraguayan swimmer at the centre of an eviction scandal in the Olympic village has broken her silence after her country's team claimed she was kicked out for creating an 'inappropriate environment'.
Luana Alonso was one of the thousands of athletes who have moved into the residential complex in Paris - where they eat, train and spend time with each other - for the duration of the Games.
There's plenty of things for competitors to do to pass the time, from getting free Costa Coffee to enjoying the games room and tiki bars...although some sports stars have been seen taking drastic action after slamming the conditions.
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Alonso was expected to stay in the Olympic village until the competition wraps up on Sunday (11 August), but she was allegedly told to pack her things and make herself scarce yesterday (5 August) by Team Paraguay.
The dramatic announcement came after her lacklustre performance in the Women’s 100m Butterfly heats, which saw her come sixth and finish with a time of 1:03.09.
She failed to qualify for the semi-finals after swimming more than three seconds slower than her personal best.
Following this, the 20-year-old then abruptly announced she was retiring from the sport on social media, telling her 500,000 Instagram followers: "Swimming: thank you for allowing me to dream, you taught me to fight, to try, perseverance, sacrifice, discipline and many more.
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"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."
Yesterday, it was then revealed that she had been booted out of the Olympic village, which is said to be housing 14,250 athletes at the moment.
Larissa Schaerer, the head of the COP mission, said: "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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The statement did not elaborate on what had gone down to prompt Alonso's removal, however, it has been speculated that the swimmer was shown the door after sneaking off to Disneyland instead of supporting her teammates.
Other media outlets reported that she had angered Paraguayan officials after shunning the official kit while in the Olympic village in favour of wearing her own clothes.
Now, Alonso has broken her silence on the situation.
Taking to her Instagram stories, she shared a snap showing her watching the sunset from a balcony with a hot drink.
The swimmer then wrote [translated]: "I just wanted to clarify that they never took me out or expelled me from anywhere, stop spreading false information.
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"I don't want to give any statement but I'm not going to let lies affect me either."
Alonso has reportedly now returned to the US, where she goes to university in Dallas, Texas.
LADbible has previously contacted POC and Alonso for comment.