Olympic Swimmer Kicked Off Athletes' Village After Sneaking Out With Boyfriend To See Paris
An Olympic swimmer was sent home to Brazil after she and her Olympian boyfriend were caught sneaking out of the Athletes' Village during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Sunday, the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) said Ana Carolina Vieira was banished from the Paris Olympics, and her boyfriend, fellow swimmer Gabriel Santos, received a warning after they left the Olympic Village without their team's knowledge and permission, Reuters reported.
The decision came after Vieira, 22, crashed out of the women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay Saturday. Her team finished 12th in the heats.
The night before her competition, Vieira and Santos -- who was also eliminated in the heats of the men's 4x100-meter freestyle -- left the Athletes' Village to enjoy a night out in Paris, according to the Daily Mail.
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The Brazilian team discovered the couple's escapade from their social media posts.
When the BOC attempted to punish Vieira for the "acts of indiscipline," the swimmer allegedly became "disrespectful and aggressive" and questioned the relay team formation, so she was ordered to go back to Brazil. Santos, on the other hand, apologized and was reprimanded.
"The athlete Ana Carolina, in a disrespectful and aggressive manner, contested a technical decision made by the Brazilian National Swimming Team committee," the BOC said.
"As a result, Gabriel Santos was given a warning and Ana Carolina Vieira was dismissed from the delegation," the committee continued. "She will return to Brazil immediately."
Vieira -- who also previously represented Brazil at the 2020 Tokyo Games -- spoke out on the decision in a series of clips shared via her Instagram Stories.
In the now-deleted videos, the Olympian denied any wrongdoing and said she has filed a complaint over alleged "harassment within the team," news outlet Tyla reported. But Vieira alleged that the COB has ignored her complaint.
Vieira claimed that she did not get the chance to grab her belongings before being kicked out of the Olympic Village in Paris and put on a flight back to her home country.
"I left there and left my materials, I didn't know what to do," she said in the clips. "My things are there [in the Olympic Village], I went to the airport in shorts. I had to open my suitcase at the airport. I'm in Portugal, I'm going to Recife and then to São Paulo."
"I am helpless, I have had no access to anything, I have not been able to speak to anyone. They told me to contact the COB channels. But how am I going to get in touch?" she continued.
Vieira said she plans to speak to her lawyers about the situation before once more insisting that she did nothing wrong.
"I am sad, nervous, but with a peace of mind because I know who I am, I know what my character and my nature are," she said.
Despite her statement, Vieira's actions were heavily criticized by Brazil's swimming team leader Gustavo Otsuka.
In a statement to Reuters, Otsuka said that the athletes were not in Paris to take "a vacation" but rather to compete "for Brazil, for the 200 million taxpayers who are working for us."
"We can't play around here," Otsuka added. "She took a completely inappropriate position to make her point, her dismay, about the formation of the relay."
