US swimmer Anita Alvarez watched on as her teammates finished ninth in the artistic swimming women's team free final at the World Championships in Budapest. The 25-year-old suffered a life-threatening scare when she fainted in the pool whilst competing in the final of the women's solo free event on Wednesday.
She was rescued by coach Andrea Fuentes, who jumped into the pool and dragged her to safety with the help of a lifeguard. Sadly for the New Yorker, she was banned from taking part in the team event just two hours before it was due to begin.
She was replaced by Yujin Chang, who was battling injury last week, and made her championship debut in the process. Although she was unable to compete, Alvarez was on hand to root for and congratulate her colleagues after their performance.
After the final without Alvarez, per Olympics.com , Fuentes said: “It was about trust and proving to ourselves that we’re not going to stop just because they don’t allow [Alvarez to swim]. “The important thing is that we tried. It was not even a failure because we lost Anita literally one-and-a-half hours before, and we practised with her.
“We had to rearrange everything, and we did our best with a swimmer who has never been on this team. I think we did very well despite these conditions.”
Team USA scored 87.4667 in the final, with China (96.7000), Ukraine (95.0000), and Japan (93.1333) taking first, second, and third respectively.
The team’s doctor Selina Shah was confident Alvarez could have competed alongside her teammates, but the international federation Fina took an opposing view, saying 'she should not compete'.
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.”
