A swimmer has the distinction of being the first Olympian sent home from the Paris 2024 Olympics for violating a significant rule involving her boyfriend.
Ana Carolina Vieira from Brazil clandestinely left the Olympic Village without her team’s consent to spend a night in Paris with Gabriel Santos, another Olympic swimmer.
Vieira competed with her Brazilian teammates in the 4×100 meters freestyle relay on Saturday (July 27), where they placed 12th in the heats.
Her unauthorized outing came to light after she shared their night on social media.
Both Vieira’s relay team and Santos in the men’s 4x100m freestyle, which also occurred on the same day, were eliminated from the competition.
The incident took place the night before, coinciding with the Olympics’ commencement, when the couple ventured out to experience Paris.
Following the revelation, Vieira allegedly rebuked the officials from their home country’s Olympic committee and was swiftly sent back to Brazil, whereas Santos, 28, was allowed to stay after issuing an apology.
Gustavo Otsuka, Head of the Brazilian Swimming Team, released a statement via the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) addressing the ‘acts of indiscipline’ by Vieira and Santos.
The statement read: “With this, in common agreement with the members of the Technical Committee of the sport, with the Team Leader and with the Brazilian Confederation of Aquatic Sports (CBDA), the COB decided to punish the two athletes for having left the Olympic Village without authorization last Friday.
“In addition to this fact, the athlete Ana Carolina, in a disrespectful and aggressive manner, contested the technical decision taken by the Brazilian Swimming Team committee.
“Thus, athlete Gabriel Santos was punished with a warning and athlete Ana Carolina Vieira was punished with removal from the delegation. She will return to Brazil immediately.”
Otsuka further commented about Vieira, who competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and Santos, who participated in Tokyo and the Rio 2016 Olympics.
He told Reuters: “We’re not here playing or taking a vacation. We’re here working for Brazil, for the 200 million taxpayers who are working for us.
“We can’t play around here. She took a completely inappropriate position to make her point, her dismay, about the formation of the relay.
“It was during this period that we decided to take this situation to the disciplinary committee, discussed it and took the appropriate action. We ended up finding out through the posts.”