American swimmer Anita Alvarez suddenly fainted and drowned at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest on Wednesday. Drowning coach Andrea Fuentes showed him promptness and rescued him by jumping into the water. The 25-year-old swimmer was not breathing, so there was an atmosphere of fear. The swimmer was carried on a stretcher and taken to the medical center of the pool.
Teammates and fans were in shock due to this incident. The US swim team later issued a statement saying that Alvarez was in good health. Coach Fuentes told Marca: “The incident was intimidating. I had to jump because the lifeguards weren’t working.” The coach later spoke about the incident on Spanish radio, revealing that lvarez had fainted due to over-pressurization during her routine.
Rapid rescue.@AFP Photographers Oli Scarff and Peter Kohalmi capture the dramatic rescue of USA’s Anita Alvarez from the bottom of the pool when she fainted during the women’s solo free artistic swimming finals at the Budapest 2022 World Aquatics Championships pic.twitter.com/8Y0wo6lSUn
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 23, 2022
The coach said, “His lungs were filled with water. Once he started breathing again everything was fine. It took a full hour. I said things weren’t right, I was yelling at the lifeguards to get into the water, but they didn’t listen to me or maybe they just didn’t understand. She was not breathing. I reached out to him as soon as possible as if it was an Olympic final.”
Alvarez rested on Thursday and could take part in Friday’s team event after further medical tests. Giving information about this, the coach said, “Anita is feeling well now and the doctor has also said that she is fine. She will rest for the whole day tomorrow and the doctors will decide if she can swim in the free team final.”
The 2021 USA Artistic Swimming Athlete of the Year Alvarez was looking for a medal at her third World Championships. However, she failed to reach the podium after finishing seventh. The gold medal went to Japan’s Yukiko Inui, while Ukraine’s Marta Fidina and Greece’s Evangelia Plataniotti earned silver and bronze medals, respectively.
