The artistic swimming day at the Budapest World Championships on Wednesday was overshadowed by a great scare: the fainting of the swimmer Anita Álvarez. In the following article, the trainer Andrea Fuentes tells how she rescued her pupil who, despite her fright, has the goal of “finishing this competition”.
On Wednesday, June 22, the American Anita Álvarez fainted while doing her exercises in the artistic swimming free-only final at the Budapest World Championships. Her trainer, the Spanish Andrea Fuentes, did not hesitate to jump into the pool of the Alfred Hajos complex to rescue her from her.
In an interview with Agencia EFE, Fuentes revealed that at the moment he identified that Álvarez was sinking, “I didn’t think, I just told myself you have to get there as fast as you can, bring her to the surface and make her breathe,” explained the coach, whose objective was “to solve that situation”.
Andrea Fuentes was the first to reach the swimmer, since the lifeguards were exorbitant at the beginning.
Something that the coach considers to be “normal, because they don’t know this sport as much as I do and they don’t swim as fast as I do either, so it’s normal that they didn’t react so quickly,” Fuentes said, justifying that “that’s why I jumped, because I saw that they weren’t going and I told myself I can’t wait another second”.
Moments later, lifeguards helped the Spanish coach pull Anita Álvarez out of the water. Once out of her, Fuentes, who has led the American artistic swimming team since 2018, helped her pupil regain consciousness.
“I tried to wake her up in every way, with screams, with slaps and then with the medical team we did a maneuver that consists of squeezing the nail of the little finger very hard, because it is a point that activates the adrenaline and that is how she woke up suddenly and he started shouting Aah, you’re hurting me! Then I thought, OK, that’s it”, said the Spanish coach.
When asked about the current state of the American swimmer, Fuentes assured that “she is very well, although it may not seem like it, she is perfect, she has slept all morning and wants to swim tomorrow (Friday)” in the group final, along with the rest of her companions.
“As soon as she woke up she was angry because she thought why it had happened to her, but Anita is such a positive person, that now we see the photos and laugh. We are trying to take the iron out of the matter,” Fuentes explained to the EFE Agency.
This event has generated a strong impact on social networks. Users have not hesitated to consider Fuentes, winner of multiple medals, including three silvers and a bronze at the Beijing and London Olympics, “an angel”, since he “saved the life” of his pupil Alvarez.
Will Anita Álvarez participate in the final on Friday?
Although Fuentes assures that “the doctors have done all the tests (to Anita) and say that she is fine”, the decision on the presence or not of the swimmer on Friday in the artistic swimming team final of the World Cups in Budapest between the swimmer herself and the “expert medical personnel” of the national team.
This was reported by the American artistic swimming team in a statement on social networks.
But unlike ‘USA Artistic Swimming’, which described “yesterday’s medical emergency” as a “heartbreaking” event, the swimmer has normalized the situation.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Álvarez stated that, “as in any sport, we push our body to the limit and sometimes we go beyond it a little bit.”
The theme is that “people don’t realize it because an image of harmony and happiness is scored. We smile with makeup. Those little things hide how tremendously demanding this is. When the training ends we feel like we’re dying. We can’t even move. People can’t imagine how frequent these fainting spells are,” the swimmer explained to the Spanish media.
“I have attracted a lot of attention because it has happened to me in some World Cups,” said the athlete, alluding to the similar episode she experienced in Barcelona, in the Olympic qualifying competition.
“But in this sport, swimmers fade every day. This does not happen only to me, ”explained the American.
Indeed, he assured that his greatest wish is to participate in the final. “I want to finish this competition, which has been the best in the United States in a long time,” she said.
Regarding her exceptional solo performance and her brilliant performance in four preliminary tests and three finals over six days of the 2022 World Cup, Anita said she was “very happy”, but not satisfied.
“I don’t want to miss my commitment to my team in the free practice final. I want to end with my head held high. I want my teammates to feel that they can trust me and this will make us stronger”, said the swimmer.
The planned US team lineup still includes Anita Álvarez.
FINA to review rules that prevent lifeguards from acting without authorization
The International Swimming Federation (FINA) announced this Thursday, June 23, that it will review the current regulations that prevent the intervention of lifeguards without a signal from the referee.
“According to the regulations, (the lifeguards) can only jump into the pool after receiving a signal from the body of referees,” said the director of the World Cup health service, Béla Merkely, who assured that the purpose of this measure is to avoid interruptions “in case of a possible misunderstanding,” he explained.
This announcement comes after the slow reaction on the part of the lifeguards to assist Álvarez.
Under this promise of investigation, FINA intends to prevent cases like this.
With EFE and local media
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