Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso has issued a statement after being removed from the Olympic Village for allegedly ‘creating an inappropriate atmosphere’.
Alonso, 20, competed for Paraguay in the women’s 100m butterfly event in Paris but failed to progress from the heats, finishing sixth with a time of 1:03.09.
Shortly after the disappointing outcome, Alonso announced her retirement from the sport to her 600k followers on Instagram.
‘Swimming: thank you for allowing me to dream, you taught me to fight, to try, perseverance, sacrifice, discipline and many more,’ Alonso said.
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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.
‘It’s not goodbye, it’s see you soon.’
Alonso has since been the subject of headlines after the Paraguayan Olympic team said she had been removed from the athletes’ village just a few days before the closing ceremony.
‘Her presence is creating an inappropriate atmosphere within Team Paraguay,’ said Larissa Schaerer, the head of the COP mission.
‘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.’
Responding to claims she created an ‘inappropriate atmosphere’, Alonso said: ‘I just wanted to clarify that I was never kicked out or expelled from anywhere, please stop spreading false information.
‘I don’t want to make any statement but I’m not going to let lies affect me either.’
Alonso, who was born in Asuncion, made her Olympic debut at the last Games but also failed to challenge for a medal in Tokyo.
Following her latest Olympic setback, Alonso said: ‘It didn’t happen the way I wanted it to.
‘I sincerely apologise to Paraguay, but I did what I could, despite several things that happened to me before.
‘So, I’m happy and also to retire here with a full stadium and finally have the Olympic Games.’
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