A Team USA swimmer was competing in the 2022 FINA World Championships when she fainted, which is a bad thing to do in a swimming pool. The athlete, Anita Alvarez, immediately began to sink to the bottom of the pool. When the lifeguards failed to act in time, her coach, Andrea Fuentes, jumped into the pool to rescue her swimmer.
The dramatic scene was captured by photographer Oli Scarff and the entire story quickly went viral, with tragedy narrowly averted thanks to the quick-acting coach. It seems surreal that everyone (else), including those who are supposed to intervene in an emergency, just sorta watched it all happen.
Afterward, Fuentes told reporters it was a “big scare.”
“I had to jump in because the lifeguards weren’t doing it,” she said. “When I saw her sinking, I looked at the rescuers, but I saw that they were stunned. They didn't react. I was scared because I saw she wasn’t breathing, but now she is doing very well.” After Fuentes rescued her from the bottom of the pool, another swimmer helped her get Alvarez out of the water so she could receive first aid.
Alvarez is in good condition now, thanks to her heroic coach, and is undergoing tests to see why she lost consciousness in the pool. And you might as well just crown Fuentes as the coach of the year for stepping up to act when she was needed the most.
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