The heroic swimming coach who wasted no time saving swimmer Anita Alvarez has spoken out about the athlete's condition.
Earlier this week, social media users were stunned by images showing coach Andrea Fuentes diving fully clothed into a pool at the swimming world championships in order to save Alvarez.
The 25-year-old artistic swimmer had just completed her solo free final at the competition in Budapest on Thursday, when she suddenly became lifeless and started to sink in the water. Images and videos then showed a heroic Fuentes - a four-time Olympic artistic swimming medallist - diving into the pool in order to save her student.
After Fuentes dragged Alvarez to the surface, she was then assisted to get the swimmer to the edge of the pool so she could receive medical attention.
Now, per Yahoo Sports, Fuentes has revealed that she believes Alvarez went almost two minutes without breathing.
"I think she was at least two minutes without breathing because her lungs were full of water," Fuentes said. "She vomited the water, coughed and that was it, but it was a big scare."
Speaking to the BBC, Fuentes also spoke out about the warning signs that first indicated to her that Alvarez was in trouble.
"I saw her feet were a little more white than normal so I thought her blood was not going as normal," Fuentes said. "Normally when you finish what you really want to do is breathe but instead of going up, she was going down.
"It was a big scare. I had to jump in because the lifeguards weren't doing it."
After Fuentes realized that Alvarez was in danger, she said that she looked over at the lifeguards. "I saw that they were stunned," she said. "They didn't react. I thought, 'Will you jump in now?' My reflexes kicked in."
According to the coach, Alvarez "feels good now" and is awaiting confirmation from doctors to see if she will be allowed to compete in the team-free event on Friday.
"Anita is OK," the coach said in the statement shared on Instagram. "The doctors checked all vitals and everything is normal: heart rate, oxygen, sugar levels, blood pressure, all is OK."
"We sometimes forget that this happens in other high-endurance sports," the coach wrote on Instagram. "Marathon, cycling, cross country… we all have seen images where some athletes don’t make it to the finish line and others help them to get there. Our sport is no different than others, just in a pool, we push through limits and sometimes we find them.
"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."
Yahoo Sports add that this is not the first time Alvarez had fainted while competing, with a similar incident occuring at an Olympic qualifying event in Barcelona last year.
