One Olympian at the 2024 Summer Games is speaking out after a controversial removal from the Paris competition.
Brazilian swimmer Ana Carolina Vieira, 22, is sharing her perspective after being asked to leave the premises in Paris following an unauthorized exit at the Olympic Village.
“My things are there [in the Olympic Village], I went to the airport in shorts,” Vieira said, according to the Daily Mail. “I had to open my suitcase at the airport. I’m in Portugal, I’m going to Recife and then to São Paulo.
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“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?”
Vieira also noted that she has “peace of mind” as she attempts to approach the matter with her legal team.
a long time.@_anavieeiraa/Instagram
Vieira and her boyfriend — fellow Brazilian swimmer Gabriel Da Silva Santos — reportedly left the Olympic Village on the night of July 26 for an excursion in Paris.
The next day, Vieira competed with her Brazilian teammates in the second heat of the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay in which Brazil placed seventh.
Subsequently, Vieira was approached by the Brazilian Olympic Committee about her activity the night before, but the swimmer, according to the Daily Mail, provoked the officials and was “disrespectful and aggressively challenging” to the point of asking her to leave Paris altogether.
after leaving the Olympic Village.@_anavieeiraa/Instagram
Nevertheless, Da Silva Santos was simply given a warning instead of being removed.
The 2024 Games proved to be the second in Vieira’s career after she also partook in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay in Tokyo — albeit much shorter than her first go-around.
