US swimmer Anita Alvarez drowns during world championships
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Coaches held their breaths as Anita Alvarez lost hers, fainting to the bottom of the pool at the world championships.
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Dramatic rescue at world championships after swimmer faints and sinks .
At the global swimming championships in Budapest on Wednesday, American swimmer Anita Alvarez was at the center of a dramatic incident when the artistic swimmer had to be pulled from the bottom of the pool by her coach after losing consciousness in the water.
Alvarez had just finished her solo free final at the World Aquatics Championships when she passed out and sunk to the bottom of the pool. Her instructor, Andrea Fuentes, swiftly detected a problem and dove in while still wearing her clothes to raise Alvarez to the surface.
The American swimmer, who was taking part in her third world championship, was not breathing as Fuentes helped take her to the pool's edge. Team USA released a statement afterwards, stating that the swimmer was doing fine after being brought from there to the pool's medical center. Alvarez still intended to participate in the team competition on Friday, according to Fuentes, despite the incident.
“It was a big scare,” Fuentes was reported as saying by Spanish newspaper Marca. “I was scared because I saw she was not breathing, but now she is doing very well. She only had water in her lungs, once she started breathing again everything was OK.”
According to accounts, Alvarez has experienced fainting spells in the water before. A similar incident occurred at a Spanish Olympic qualifier last year when a fully clothed Fuentes once more dove into the water to save a swimmer. Unfortunately, I've seen it happen to her before, Alvarez's mother Karen stated at the time.
Alvarez will be examined by medics on Thursday before a decision is made about whether or not she will compete in Friday's team event, according to a message on the US Artistic Swimming Instagram page by Fuentes.
“Anita is OK,” she said. “The doctors checked all vitals and everything is normal: heart rate, oxygen, sugar levels, blood pressure, etc … all is OK. We sometimes forget that this happens in other high-endurance sports.
Cross-country, cycling, marathon... We've all seen pictures of competitors who fail to cross the finish line being helped by others. We push past limits and occasionally find them in our sport, which is no different from other sports in that regard.
“Anita feels good now and the doctors also say she is OK. [On Thursday] she will rest all day and will decide with the doctor if she can swim free team finals or not. Thank you for all of your well wishes for Anita.”
