Olympic swimmer dismissed from 2024 Games after she breaks major rule with her boyfriend
A swimmer has become the first Olympian to be sent home from the Paris 2024 Olympics after breaking a major rule with her boyfriend.
Brazilian Ana Carolina Vieira snuck out of the Olympic Village without permission from her team to spend a night in Paris with her boyfriend, fellow Olympic swimmer Gabriel Santos.
Vieira competed on Saturday (July 27) alongside her fellow Brazilian teammates in the 4x100 meters freestyle relay in which they finished 12th in the heats.
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She was caught out after posting their night on social media.
The 22-year-old's relay team was eliminated from the competition and so too was Santos in the men's 4x100m freestyle - which took place on the same day.
But it was the night before, on the day the Olympics started, that the couple went out into the city of love to get a real taste of Paris.
When the bosses from their home country's Olympic committee found out Vieira allegedly berated them and was immediately sent packing, while her 28-year-old boyfriend was allowed to remain after apologising.
The Head of the Brazilian Swimming Team, Gustavo Otsuka, issued a statement via the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) in regards to Vieira and Santos' 'acts of indiscipline'.
It 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."
However, while Otsuka's statement finished there, he had more to say about Vieira, who competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and Santos, who competed in Tokyo and also the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Otsuka said per 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."
Team USA's current medal count - 20
Gold medalists
- Lee Kiefer: Fencing - Women's individual foil
- Torri Huske: Swimming - Women's 100m butterfly
- Jack Alexj, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong, Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held, Matt King: Swimming - Men's 4x100m freestyle
Silver medalists
- Nic Fink: Swimming - Men's 100m breaststroke
- Lauren Scruggs: Fencing - Women's individual foil
- Gretchen Walsh: Swimming - Women's 100m butterfly
- Haley Batten: Mountain Bike - Women's cross country
- Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh. Torri Huske, Simone Manuel, Erika Connolly, Abbey Weitzel: Swimming - Women's 4x100m freestyle
- Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook: Diving - Women's springboard 3m synchronised
- Katie Grimes: Swimming - Women's 400m individual medley
- Jagger Eaton: Skateboarding - Men's street
Bronze medalists
- Carson Foster: Swimming - Men's 400m individual medley
- Katie Ledecky: Swimming - Women's 400m freestyle
- Chloe Dygert: Cycling - Women's individual time trial
- Frederick Richard, Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik, Paul Juda, Asher Hong: Artistic Gymnastics - Men's team competition
- Nick Itkin: Fencing - Men's foil individual
- Emma Weyant: Swimming - Women's 400m individual medley
- Ryan Murphy: Swimming - Men's 100m backstroke
- Luke Hobson: Swimming - Men's 200m freestyle
- Nyjah Huston: Skateboarding - Men's street
Topics: Olympics, Sport, Sex and Relationships
Joe Yates