Who Is Luana Alonso the Swimmer Reportedly ‘Kicked Out’ of Olympic Village for Causing an ‘Inappropriate’ Atmosphere?
So many athletes are competing on the world stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the majority of them are staying at the Olympic Village. But it reportedly hasn’t been all harmony with everyone there.
On Aug. 5, news broke that Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso was “expelled” from the Athlete Village for “creating an inappropriate atmosphere.”
Here’s more on that, as well as what we know about Alonso and what she’s saying now following the reports that she was suspended from the Olympic Village.
Alonso did not compete for the U.S., but she wanted to
Luana Maria Alonso Mendez was born on March 19, 2004, in Asunción, Paraguay. She loved the water since she was a child, so her parents decided to enroll her in swim lessons at an early age.
Alonso has not only become a swimming sensation in Paraguay, but also a social media influencer and has a partnership with the fast food chain Mostaza. She speaks multiple languages and is a student at Southern Methodist University. Before SMU, she attended Virginia Tech for a brief time.
A news outlet in her home country noted that Alonso wanted to compete with the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics, not Paraguay.
“I want to represent the United States,” Alonso said during a live video on social media before the Olympics, according to HOY.
In the same video, she allegedly slammed the Paraguay Olympic Committee’s (COP) treatment of its athletes saying: “They threaten me that they are going to publish a statement, that I am going to leave because of universality, if I support my sport it is thanks to my sponsors, they want to humiliate me and say ‘it is not a big deal that you are leaving because of universality’ and like no Paraguayan woman has ever made a mark for the Olympic Games, and to tell me that and on top of that I am one second away is nothing.”
After failing to advance out of her heat in the semi-finals in Paris, Alonso shocked fans around the world when she announced that she was retiring from swimming.
Alonso responds to claims she was ‘expelled’ from the village
There have been some disputes about exactly why Alonso’s time at the Olympic Village came to an end. One report suggests that it was because she did not get along too well with her Paraguayan teammates and wore skimpy outfits, while another blames it on a trip she took to Disneyland Paris instead of going to team events. Upon her alleged removal from the Village, she was asked to go to a hotel and did so.
Former tennis player and head of the Paraguayan Olympic Committee, Larissa Schaerer said in a statement: “[Luana’s] 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.”
Alonso has since responded to the claims that she was told to leave.
“I just wanted to clarify that I was never kicked out or expelled from anywhere, please stop spreading false information,” she posted to her Instagram Stories. “I don’t want to make any statement but I’m not going to let lies affect me either.”
