Ana Carolina Vieira will not represent Brazil in the pool at the Olympics after all. She was sent home by the delegation after sneaking around with her boyfriend, fellow swimmer Gabriel Santos, and getting into a heated argument over her standing on the team.
It was a double-whammy that got her booted from the Games!
Santos, 28, will be allowed to stay because his poor behavior was not two-fold. He swam for Brazil in the 4x100m Freestyle relay and finished in 10th place with a time of 48.86 in prelims. Even though his trip to France will continue, he did receive a firm slap on the wrist for leaving the Olympic Village without permission on Friday.
Vieira, 22, was slated to be a key contributor to the Brazilian 4x100m Freestyle and Medley relays in the coming days. Not anymore! She will be replaced.
The first violation of team rules occurred on Friday. Vieria and Santos left the Brazilian team’s Olympics headquarters to explore the City of Lights as boyfriend and girlfriend. Their team was not aware of their roguery and they did not receive authorization to leave.
Vieria was going to be allowed to stay in Paris like Santos. However, Team Brazil gave her the boot and sent her home after the athlete “contested the technical decision taken by the Brazilian Swimming Team committee” in a “disrespectful and aggressive manner. According to Brazilian swim team head Gustavo Otsuka, she wasn’t pleased with her position on the relay team.
“Everyone knows that we came to work, and to work for Brazil, not for a vacation, nor to play, we came to work for Brazil. [Vieria] violated the code of conduct by being too impetuous about a technical decision. She was aggressive and you can’t lose focus on the competition, which is the most important thing.
There was no other way. I’m not happy with the situation, but there was nothing we could do. We tried to talk to her twice in the pool area and then we tried a third time. And she didn’t change. I don’t even remember the words she used, she said a lot of nonsense.”
— Gustavo Otsuka
Strike two, she’s out!
Interestingly enough, Ana Carolina Vieria got in trouble at a swim meet in 2023. She got into an argument with her countrymate. It seems to be a pattern.
Team Brazil tried to give her a second and third chance. She ultimately didn’t cooperate and was told to pack!