Olympic athlete sent home after getting caught trying to break major rule with boyfriend
The Olympics are already causing a stir after a couple was caught breaking a major rule.
According to reports, Brazilian swimmer Ana Carolina Vieira has been sent home from the Paris games and her teammate and boyfriend Gabriel Santos was given a warning after they were caught red handed doing something that’s a big ‘no no’.
The Brazilian Olympic Committee confirmed on Sunday 28 July that Vieira left the athletes' village with her boyfriend without permission.
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.
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The Committee apparently received a statement from the Head of the Brazilian Swimming Team, Gustavo Otsuka, on Saturday 27 July which explained that the swimmers committed acts of indiscipline.
This means that the members of the Technical Commission of the sport, the Team Leader and Brazilian Confederation of Aquatic Sports (CBDA), had to come up with a suitable punishment.
The CBDA and the COB ultimately decided to punish them for leaving the Olympic Village without authorisation.
According to the CBDA, athlete Ana Carolina was disrespectful and aggressive when she opposed the decision, which meant that instead of being warned, like Santos was, she was dismissed entirely.
The statement read: "As a result, Gabriel Santos was given a warning and Ana Carolina Vieira was dismissed from the delegation. She will return to Brazil immediately."
Santos had apparently been eliminated in the heats of the men's 4x100 freestyle and was reprimanded after apologising.
No further action has been confirmed to have been taken against the swimmer boyfriend, but his girlfriend is in hot water.
Gustavo Otsuka, Brazil's swimming team leader explained the decision and why her behaviour isn’t acceptable to Reuters.
He said: "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.”
He went on to share that it was her aggressive manor that ultimately was her downfall and had her kicked out of the Olympics - a place that athletes dream of competing in.
Otsuka continued: "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.”
The Paris Games kicked off on Friday 26 July and will run until 11 August without Vieira contributing to her national team.
After her departure, commenters took to her Instagram account to speculate on the decision to have her removed, seemingly not agreeing with her tearful apology on her Stories.
One person wrote: “Why didn't he leave the Olympics too? Should pay a fine for irresponsibility.”
Another commented: “To think that there are real athletes who dream of going to an Olympics and there are people like this who don't care. Hopefully they won't be allowed to attend anymore.”
The most bizarre, discontinued Olympic sports
Painting
Back in the day, the Olympics dished out medals for art too, with events including painting and sculpture, as well as music, architecture and even literature.
Making its debut all the way back at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 London games, juries awarded competitors a total of 151 medals for artistic projects inspired by sport.
Tug of War
Bet you didn't think this playground classic was once part of the Olympics, did you?
Well, it turns out not only was the sport popular, but it stirred up a lot of drama too - with accusations of foul play flying around at the 1908 Olympics in London, with Team USA accusing Team GB of cheating due to their 'illegal' heavy footwear.
A mainstay for around five Olympic games from 1900 to 1920, Tug of War enthusiasts have even campaigned for organisers to reintroduce the retired sport back into the Games.
Hot Air Balloon Racing
Launching at the 1900 Olympics, hot air balloon drivers would compete in races scoring how far they could travel, altitude reached, ability to land within the correct coordinates and - to top it all off - who got the best photo from the balloon.
The sport ended up being canned after a ban on motorised sports was brought in.
Live Pigeon Shooting
Also making its debut at the 1900 Olympics, the event was pretty self explanatory - a load of pigeons were released into the air as the competitor tried to shoot as many as possible. Grim.
The event only appeared at the Games once, and all in all, it's estimated that Olympic hopefuls killed around 300 pigeons.
Pistol Duelling
It doesn't take much guessing as to why this event was scrapped, but back in 1906, people clearly didn't bat an eyelid at competitors waving pistols around and shooting at each other.
It began with competitors shooting at dummies, but two years later organisers decided to shake things up and have them shoot at each other with wax bullets. Ouch.
1908 would be the last time the sport was included in the Olympics, so I'm guessing they quickly realised it was a bad idea - wax bullets or not.
Britt Jones