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American Olympia Anita Alvarez was to be saved from the swimming pool when it passed out and almost drowned at the aquatic world championships in June 2022.
The artistic swimmer finally helped Team USA to win a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Games, but this is the moment when her coach rushed into the swimming pool to save her two years ago, she stayed with the world of sport for months before the start of the Olympic Games.
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Anita Alvarez of the United States, in the center, is taken from the swimming pool after having collapsed during the solo-free artist swimming final at the 19th world championships in the final in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (Zsolt Szigetvary / MTI via AP)
She talked about the incident in an interview with People Magazine, which was published on Saturday.
“I suddenly remember starting to see the light through my eyes and thinking:” Oh, I don’t breathe “, just when they started to put a mask of oxygen”, “she said.
Alvarez said the whole incident “exploded much more than” she would have thought.
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Anita Alvarez is helped out of the swimming pool after collapsing during the solo final of artistic swimming at the 19th world championships in the final in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (Zsolt Szigetvary / MTI via AP)
“But to learn how these photos inspired people who changed my way of seeing,” she said.
Alvarez now focuses on his career outside the pool. She joined the US Air Force and graduated from the basic training in January. She is a member of the world class sports program, which helps soldiers to continue their training during her service.
Since then, she returned to the swimming pool to prepare for the world championships later this year in Singapore in the hope of going back to the American team for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Synchronized swimming athletes from the United States Anita Alvarez poses for a portrait during the Team USA 2016 media summit at Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on March 8, 2016. (Robert Hanashiro-Usa today Sports)
Alvarez has three bronze medals and a silver medal at the world championships.
