Paraguayan Olympic swimmer Luana Alonso has responded firmly to allegations from her country, which claimed she was expelled from the Olympic Village last year for fostering an inappropriate environment. She denounced these accusations as lies and “false rumors.”
Alonso, 21, competed for her native Paraguay in the women’s 100m Butterfly at the 2024 Summer Games, but failed to reach the semifinals.
Alonso faced accusations of creating an “inappropriate atmosphere” during her stay in France, leading the Paraguayan Olympic Committee to separate her from fellow athletes.
She had waited 11 months to address the situation.
“Let me make this clear: I left the Olympic Village on my own,” Alonso wrote on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday.
The two-time Olympian reportedly faced issues after missing out on advancing from the heat races. It is said that she opted for a day trip to Disneyland Paris instead of supporting her teammates, which upset the country’s Olympic officials.
She documented her trip to the theme park on social media, posing for a picture wearing Mickey Mouse ears and holding a champagne flute.
“Her presence is creating an inappropriate atmosphere within Team Paraguay,” Larissa Schaerer, the head of the Paraguayan Olympic Committee, said in a statement published by The Sun at the time.
Alonso fired back, saying the accusations were not true.
“The Paraguayan Olympic team claimed I created an ‘inappropriate environment simply because I decided I didn’t want to swim anymore,” she said. “They tried to take my accreditation away, but that’s not something they had the right to do. I chose not to hand it over and apparently that was ‘inappropriate’ to them.”
Her dress style, which featured “skinny clothing” and socializing with athletes, was also noted as a distraction during her stay at the Olympic Village in Seine-Saint-Denis.
She made headlines before the start of the Paris Games when she debuted a new tattoo on her hips of the five Olympic rings.
After she was removed from the Olympic Village, Alonso reportedly checked into a Parisian hotel and visited high-end stores and restaurants.
The Southern Methodist University alum claimed Paraguayan swimming officials had pleaded for her to return to the pool for the Pan American Junior Games being held in the country’s capital, Asunción, in August.
“If I had been treated with basic respect, maybe I wouldn’t have stepped away,” she added.
Alonso says she always had “given everything” for her country but when she stood up for herself it was viewed as a problem.
The two-time Olympian threatened to sue news outlets who ran stories about the accusations brought against her by the Paraguayan Olympic Committee.
“I’m seriously considering legal action against the magazines and media outlets spreading false rumors like that I was expelled from the Olympic Village. Really? Who came up with that nonsense? Well that it’s not true,” she wrote.
Alonso also teased that she would be releasing a video to better explain her thinking.
“Seriously this (sic) lies are wild and affecting my life and that’s why I decided I’m keeping my life lowkey,” she said.
Alonso retired from competitive swimming shortly after the Olympics concluded, but made a sudden about-face weeks later when she returned to training.
In May, she teased her return to the pool in a cryptic message, not ruling out competition or the Olympics.
“Next year I’m coming back,” she wrote to a fan’s question. “But I don’t know if I will be back to competitive swimming.”
