Anita Alvarez had to be fished out of the pool when the 25-year-old synchronization swimmer suddenly sank to the bottom during her performance. The 25-year-old fainted during the World's Championship that was being held in Budapest.
This was her second time fainting in a pool during competition. Andrea Fuentes, her coach, jumped to her rescue and dragged her out of the water with the help of another.
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She came seventh in the match, which spelled the win for Yukiko Inui from Japan.
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With this being her second time collapsing mid-competition, fans have been worrying about her health. An unnamed man had also jumped in to help her coach drag her out of the water.
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Alvarez gained consciousness soon after and received immediate first aid. The former Olympian herself has shared that she's doing fine since.
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Fuentes shared, "I was scared because I saw she wasn’t breathing, but now she is doing very well. Anita is doing much better."
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Her faint meant the American swim team lost one of their top contenders for the match. Fans were seen consoling each other after she was taken up to the side.
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Fuentes later continued to address her situation through the USA Artistic Swimming organization. The statement reads, "Anita is okay – the doctors checked all vitals, and everything is normal: heart rate, oxygen, sugar levels, blood pressure, etc. all is okay. We sometimes forget that this happens in other high-endurance sports. Marathon, cycling, cross country."
"We have all seen images, where some athletes don’t make it to the finish line and others, help them get there."
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"Our sport is no different to others, just in a pool, we push through limits, and sometimes we find them," the statement continued to read. "Anita feels good now and the doctors also say she is okay. Tomorrow 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," it concluded.
Synchronized swimmers typically do not hold their breath for long underwater. Cases of swimmers passing away, however, isn't unheard of. Olympic medal winner Fran Crippen passed away in 2010 at the age of 26 in an open water swimming event.
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People did not notice that he was missing until they could find him at the finish line. A hunt immediately started to look for him, but it took them two hours to find his body on the bottom of the shore 500 yards from the line.
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Fuentes, who jumped to rescue Anita, explained that she noticed her drowning immediately and saw that the lifeguards did not move ASAP.
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Anita has since shared her own update, explaining that she's "okay and health."
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She continued writing, "I appreciate all of the messages of support and hope everyone can respect that my team and I still have two more days of competition to be focused on here in Budapest."
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After Day 1, Anita had shared how "nerve-racking" it was to lead off the first event for the country she was representing, but she loved the "pressure."
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"I’m happy to say we’re seated well into the final at the moment: 6th in Tech Solo and 8th in Tech Duet with a few major and few minor things to improve on in both routines for our finals swim!" she captioned in the post.
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She's also only returned to the pool last month after injuring her leg.
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