Swimmer Luana Alonso Kicked Out From 2024 Paris Olympics

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Luana Alonso missed out on qualification for the women’s 100m butterfly semi-final by a mere 0.24 seconds.

Luana Alonso, a 20-year-old swimmer from Paraguay, was asked to leave the Olympic Village for allegedly creating an “inappropriate” environment. “Her presence is creating an inappropriate atmosphere within Team Paraguay,” read a statement from Paraguayan Olympic Committee boss Larissa Schaerer.

Larissa 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.

Born on September 19, 2004, Luana Alonso is a competitive swimmer from Paraguay who specializes in butterfly stroke events. She is the national record holder for Paraguay in the 100m butterfly event.

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She is currently a student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA. Before her time with the university’s women’s swimming and diving team, she was a part of Virginia Tech for one semester. She first represented her country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the age of 17, finishing in 28th place and failing to advance to the semifinals.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, she made her second appearance but was eliminated in the heats after finishing sixth place. She also participated in the Youth Olympic Games, South American Games, and the World Championships.

Ahead of the Olympics, Luana Alonso 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 Luana 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, Luana Alonso, who has over 907k 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 failing to qualify for the semifinals, she said, “It was my last race. I am retiring from swimming“.

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