The incident occurred during the solo segment of the synchronized swimming. Alvarez fell unconscious in the water immediately after her performance. With the help of a second bystander, her coach rescued her from the water. Half an hour after the incident, a caretaker announced that all was well with Alvarez. The fainting was stress related and happened to her before.
“I was afraid because I saw that she was not breathing, but now she is doing very well,” her coach Andrea Fuentes, four-time Olympic medalist, told Spanish media. “She only had water in her lungs. Once she started breathing again, everything was fine. It felt like a full hour. I yelled that something was wrong, I yelled to the rescuers to get in the water, but they didn’t catch what I was roaring or they didn’t understand. She stopped breathing. So I acted as fast as I could, like it was an Olympic final.”
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On Friday, Alvarez, who is currently already part of Team USA at the World Cup, spoke about the incident for the first time.
“I remember thinking it was a great exercise,” the American, who eventually finished seventh, told NBC. “My best ever, so to speak. So I really enjoyed the moment and felt a lot of pride. I started to feel some tingling in my fingers before and then it all went black. I still remember my last arm move. And then I felt myself sink and think, oh no, I don’t feel so good.”
“That was it really, everything went so fast. I knew right away that I would be okay when I woke up again. I say this to her and other people all the time: I’m so grateful to have Andrea as a coach. I still can’t believe she was going to train us.”
“Obviously, when I first saw the photos, I was shocked,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t think such photos would be published. But I try not to look at it negatively. Actually they are beautiful pictures, in a way. It’s special to see me down there in the water, so peaceful, so still, and to see Andrea come down with her arm outstretched trying to reach me. She looks like a superhero.”
World Cup over
Fuentes also immediately made it clear that Alvarez will not leave the World Cup and that she will therefore participate in the upcoming matches. “She doesn’t want to leave the competition with a photo of her lying unconscious on the floor of the pool,” it sounds. That will now be the case. On Friday afternoon, word came in that Alvarez will leave the World Championship after all. The American is not included in the selection for the team competition at the World Cup in the Hungarian capital Budapest. She is replaced by Yujin Chang.
© NBC
