Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso pushed back on reports saying she was kicked out of the Olympics, claiming she retired on her own accord.
Paraguay’s Hoy newspaper reported that Alonso told fans she did not want to represent Paraguay at all during a livestream. They reported her saying, “I want to represent the United States more.” The region’s local news outlets also reported that Paraguay’s chef de mission in Paris, Larissa Schaerer, asked the athlete to leave the Olympic Village because of the way she represented herself on social media. Schaerer’s text to Alonso reportedly said she was “creating an inappropriate atmosphere at the heart of Team Paraguay.”
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Paraguay’s Luana Alonso competes in a heat of the women’s 100m butterfly swimming event during the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka on July 23, 2023. (Photo by François-Xavier MARIT / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP via Getty Images)
Alonso, a 20-year-old that maintains an regular social media presence, claimed she was not asked to leave the Olympic games. The Texas-born athlete tearfully announced she was retiring from swimming entirely, after she was dumped out of the heats of the women’s 100m butterfly, according to Daily Beast.
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She routinely posted selfies to social media while in Paris, the majority of which included posing in skimpy bikinis and putting her perfectly toned body on full display for her nearly 750,000 fans.
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In spite of the fact that she was no longer competing in her sport, Alonso continued to attend athletes’ village. She remained in Paris and enjoyed Disneyland Paris for a day of fun, before deciding to depart the French capital.
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The athlete has since returned to Texas, where she is a student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and has taken to social media to report her version of events.
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“I just wanted to make it clear that I was never removed or expelled from anywhere, stop spreading false information,” she wrote on her Instagram Story, Monday.
“I don’t want to give any statement but I’m not going to let lies affect me either,” she said.
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Hoy newspaper published a report saying tension between Alonso and team chiefs was a result of the fact that she had only qualified for Paris under IOC “universality” rules that allow extra spaces to teams with athletes that have not met Olympic qualifying standards, but Alonso said she could have qualified on her own accord. (RELATED: Medics Rush To Assist As Olympic Swimmer Tamara Potocka Collapses Right After Race)
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The extra attention has resulted in an increase of 250,000 followers to Alfonso’s social media account in one week, according to Daily Beast.
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