Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso has found herself at the centre of an ongoing controversy at the Paris Olympics. The 20-year-old, who failed to advance from the women’s 100m butterfly heats on July 27, was reportedly asked to leave the athletes’ village due to “inappropriate behaviour”.
Alonso, who announced his retirement from swimming a day after missing semifinal qualification by 0.24 seconds — and weeks after getting a tattoo of the Olympic rings — reportedly left the village to visit Disneyland Paris rather than support his teammates.
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She faced additional criticism for allegedly “distracting” fellow competitors by socializing with other teams and wearing “revealing and short” clothing in the village instead of the official Paraguayan team uniform. This, combined with her unauthorized trip to Disneyland, ultimately led to her removal from the Olympic Village.
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Paraguay Olympic Committee chief Larissa Scherer confirmed that Alonso was instructed to leave the premises, citing his behaviour as the reason for the decision. She said Alonso’s presence was creating an “inappropriate atmosphere” within the Paraguayan team. “We thank him for going ahead as instructed, as it was of his own free will that he did not spend the night in the Athletes’ Village,” the committee chief said.
However, Luana Alonso posted on Instagram that she was never removed or expelled from anywhere, urging people to “stop spreading misinformation.”
“I don’t want to make any statement but I won’t let lies dominate me either.”
Beyond her Olympic efforts, Alonso is a student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she is a member of the women’s swimming and diving team. Prior to that, she spent a semester at Virginia Tech. Alonso first gained international recognition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she represented Paraguay at just 17 years old and finished 28th. After missing semifinal qualification at the Paris Olympics by 0.24 seconds, Alonso announced her surprise retirement from competitive swimming.
In a video released on social media he criticised the treatment meted out to the athletes by the Paraguayan Olympic Committee, claiming the aim was to “humiliate them”.
“They threaten me that they are going to publish a statement that I am going to leave because of universalism. They want to humiliate me and say it is no big deal that you are leaving because of universalism,” Alonso said, referring to a system designed to increase the diversity of countries participating in the Olympics. “Representing Paraguay is no joy, and if it were up to me, I would go back to college.”
Committee chairman Camilo Perez responded by saying that based on Alonso’s times she would not qualify for the Olympics as a member of Team USA. “She would have to train a lot more to represent the USA; her times would have to get better,” Perez said.
