Only Andrea Fuentes’ fast thinking and heroic rescue spared a tragedy.
At the global aquatics championships on Wednesday in Budapest, a Team USA artistic swimmer who looked to faint in the water was spectacularly saved by her coach.
Anita Alvarez, 25, was performing her solo free performance when terrifying photographs showed her floating toward the bottom of the pool while seemingly unconscious.
According to the Olympic Games’ news site, her coach Andrea Fuentes, who has previously won four synchronized swimming Olympic medals for Spain, sprang into action.
In the pictures, Fuentes can be seen swimming to Alvarez while still completely covered in a T-shirt and shorts. Then pulls the swimmer up toward the water’s surface.
She can then be seen dragging Alvarez, a two-time Olympian, toward the edge of the pool with the help of an unidentified man.
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 Olympics Games website said that Alvarez received medical attention before being carried away on a stretcher.
In a statement shared on the USA Artistic Swimming Instagram page, Fuentes said: “Anita is okay” after the harrowing incident.
“The doctors checked all vitals and everything is normal: heart rate, oxygen, sugar levels, blood pressure, etc… all is okay,” she said.
“We sometimes forget that this happens in other high-endurance sports. Marathon, cycling, cross country,” she continued. “We all have seen images where some athletes don’t make it to the finish line and others help them to get there.”
“Our sport is no different than others, just in a pool, we push through limits and sometimes we find them,” she said. “Anita feels good now and the doctors also say she is okay.”
Fuentes claimed that she dove into the ocean ” I noticed that no one, no lifeguard, was plunging in” in an interview with the Spanish newspaper Marca.
“I got a little scared because she wasn’t breathing, but now she’s fine,” she said
“It was her best performance ever, she just pushed through her limits and she found them,” Fuentes joked.
Watch it here: Youtube/ITV News
Sources: Westernjournal, Dailymail, Abc10