A team USA artistic swimmer was saved by her coach after losing consciousness underwater during at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest on Wednesday.
Team USA coach Andrea Fuentes said lifeguards didn’t react when swimmer Anita Alvarez, a two-time Olympian, fainted underwater. So she jumped in to rescue the unconscious athlete at the bottom of the pool.
As reported by USA Today, the 25-year-old swimmer was performing her routine in the solo free final when she lost consciousness and sank to the bottom of the pool.
Fuentes told the Spanish outlet MARCA that she noticed her athlete wasn’t breathing and, when lifeguards didn’t respond, jumped in to save her.
She swam to the unresponsive Alvarez, put her arms around her, and lifted her to the water’s surface, where another person helped get her out of the pool.
Fuentes called it a “big scare” but wrote on Instagram that Alvarez was “okay.”
The 25-year-old Alvarez, a 2016 Rio Olympian who was competing in her third world championships, recovered and hoped to compete in the team free event on Friday. But her status had yet to be determined.
Alvarez “will decide with the doctor if she can swim free team finals or not,” Fuentes added.