Who is swimmer Luana Alonso, banned from the Olympic village?

Normally athletes spend four years, if not their whole lives, working towards earning a spot at the Olympic village to represent their country at their sport and go for gold.

But former Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso has hit the headlines after she was kicked out of it.

Alonso, 20, was a professional swimmer who represented her country in Women's 50m, 100m and 200m Butterfly competitions but has since retired from the sport.

She holds a number of national records in the 100m competition and this is the one she specialised in.

Alonso first represented Paraguay at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, which took place in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, in that event when she was just 17-years-old.

Paris 2024 was her second Olympic Games competing in the Women's 100m Butterfly but she crashed out in the heats.

Since then, it's reported she snuck out to Disneyland one night much to the annoyance of team bosses and had been staying in the village after retiring from the sport.

In a statement issued to The Sun, Larissa Schaerer, Paraguayan Olympic Committee boss, said: "Her 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."

It comes after Alonso announced her retirement from the sport soon after exiting the 2024 Olympics.

On an Instagram post, she said: "It's official now! I'm retiring from swimming, thank you all so much for the support! Sorry Paraguay ♥️ I only have to thank you!"

She followed that up with another Instagram post which had photos of her competing along with a long message to her followers.

The caption said: "Swimming: thank you for allowing me to dream, you taught me to fight, to try, perseverance, sacrifice, discipline and many more.

"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 not commented publicly about leaving the Olympic village at the time of writing.

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