By LEONARDO BENASSATTO
PARIS (Reuters) – Brazilian swimmer Ana Carolina Vieira has been sent home from the Paris Olympics and her teammate Gabriel Santos was given a warning after they left the athletes’ village without clearing it with the team, the Brazilian Olympic Committee said on Sunday.
The two swimmers had left the village, where most athletes for the Paris Games are staying, without their team’s knowledge and their infraction was discovered following their posts on social media.
The BOC said in a statement it had received a communique on Saturday from the head of the country’s swimming team informing them the swimmers had “committed acts of indiscipline”.
The BOC said it had decided to punish the athletes but Vieira then also challenged the relay team formation.
“The athlete Ana Carolina, in a disrespectful and aggressive manner, contested a technical decision made by the Brazilian National Swimming Team committee,” it said.
“As a result, Gabriel Santos was given a warning and Ana Carolina Vieira was dismissed from the delegation. She will return to Brazil immediately.”
The 22-year-old Vieira competed on Saturday with the 4×100 metres freestyle relay team that finished 12th in the heats.
“We’re not here playing or taking a vacation,” said Gustavo Otsuka, Brazil’s swimming team leader. “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,” he said.
The Paris Games kicked off on Friday and run to Aug. 11.
(Writing by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Alison Williams)
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