Former Olympic Fuentes saved his athlete: “I picked her up and lifted her, she was heavy. She wasn’t breathing, her jaws were clenched.” The US team: “Now he’s fine”. The doctors will decide if you will be able to participate in the team final
Infinite seconds of fear, a drama in the pool that was touched upon thanks to the intervention of the US team coach, the Spanish Andrea Fuentes. It was she who understood that something was wrong: Anita Alvarez at the end of her synchro routine fainted and slipped to the bottom of the Budapest World Cup pool. “It was a great scare – Fuentes told the Spanish newspaper Marcas -. I dived because I saw that instead of going up she was going down and then I realized that the lifeguards weren’t helping her”.
The dip
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Fuentes was in shorts and a T-shirt and dived to bring her athlete back to the surface and then to the edge of the pool. “I was scared because I saw that she wasn’t breathing, but she is doing so much better now,” said Fuentes, four times on the Olympic podium in synchronized swimming. Alvarez was taken on a stretcher to the pool medical center, with teammates and fans in shock. “I think she was at least two minutes without breathing because her lungs were full of water – Fuentes told AS -. But we managed to get her to safety. She threw up the water, she just coughed, but it was a great scare. ”
The criticisms
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Fuentes harshly criticized the response of the lifeguards. “When I saw it sink instead of come up, I looked at the rescuers, but I saw that they were stunned. They didn’t react. I thought, ‘Are you going to dive now?’ I reacted immediately, I said to myself that I could not stay and watch. I didn’t think about it too much, I dived. I picked her up and lifted her, she was heavy, it wasn’t easy “. Alvarez, 25, entered her third world championship and had previously suffered from fainting in the water, the last time during an Olympic qualifier in Barcelona last year. The US team released a statement on social media explaining that Alvarez passed out due to exertion during the routine. “Anita is fine – explained Fuentes – the doctors have checked all vital parameters and everything is normal: heart rate, oxygen, sugar levels, blood pressure. Sometimes we forget that this happens in other high-endurance sports. Marathon, cycling, cross-country skiing … we have all seen images in which some athletes do not reach the finish line and others help them to get there “. And then he added: “Our sport is no different from the others, only that we are in the pool in the pool, we push the limits and sometimes we find them. Anita now feels well and the doctors say she is fine too. Tomorrow she will rest all the time. day and will decide with the doctor whether or not he will be able to swim in the free team finals. “
June 23, 2022 (change June 23, 2022 | 12:19)
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