US Synchronised swimmer Anita Alvarez has broken her silence after fainting in the pool, forcing her hero coach to jump in and save her. Alvarez was representing her country at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest when the terrifying incident occurred.
Midway through her routine, the American swimmer lost consciousness, before her coach Andrea Fuentes dived in to save Alvarez’s life. Fortunately the American received medical treatment and was quickly brought back to consciousness.
Now back on the mend, Alvarez has addressed her fans with a positive update via a post on her Instagram story. She wrote: “Thank you everyone, will give a brief update soon. But in the meantime know that I am OK and healthy!
“I appreciate all of the messages and hope everyone can respect that my team and I still have 2 more days of competition to be focused on here in Budapest. (Whether that is in the water for me or on the sidelines by myself and expert medical staff.
Alvarez also spoke out during an interview with NBC, and thanked her coach Fuentes for her heroic response.
The athlete said: “I mean I say this all the time to her and to other people, [I’m] just so grateful to have her as a coach. When I found out she was coming to be our coach, it was like, I didn't believe it.”
Discussing her memory of the incident itself, Alvarez added: “I remember feeling like it was a really great performance.
“Like, my best one by far and not only just how I performed but just that I was actually enjoying it and really living in the moment too.
"So, because of that I feel really happy and really proud and then at the very end, I do remember like the very last arm I did, I gave like, it's such a simple small arm.
"But I was like give everything until the very end and I did that and then I remember going down and just being like, kind of like, ‘uh-oh, I don't feel too great.’ And that's literally the last thing I remember actually.”
Her Spanish coach Fuentes - who won four Olympic and 16 World Championship honours during her career - has revealed that despite the terrifying moment in the pool, Alvarez will continue to compete at this year’s event.
She commented: “She doesn’t want to leave here with the photo of her unconscious at the bottom of the pool. In any case in the team events Anita does a lot of pirouettes and very few apneas so she will almost certainly compete.”
