Two years ago, Anita Alvarez made headlines after she was rescued from drowning by her coach during an artistic swimming competition. Now, the elite athlete is an Olympic silver medalist.
Alvarez, 27, took second place alongside her Team USA co-competitors in the artistic swimming team competition on Wednesday, Aug. 7 at La Défense Arena in Paris.
The victory marks the first time the United States has medaled in the event since 2004.
After winning the silver, Alvarez and her team spoke to Today, where the Buffalo, N.Y. native said, “I’m just so happy to be here with this team and leaving with the silver medal is just the cherry on top.”
The U.S. artistic swimming team — coached by Andrea Fuentes, who bravely jumped into the pool and saved Alvarez when she fainted in the water in 2022 — performed three routines over three days to win the silver, starting with a spectacular underwater routine set to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” that quickly went viral on social media.
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Alvarez said she and her teammates “were underwater so we couldn’t hear, but the crowd went crazy” as they performed the routine, per Team USA. “And now we’re seeing videos blow up all over the internet, which I think is great for the sport. Anything to help grow the sport,” she added.
Speaking to NBC, the silver medalist said she’s “so proud” of her younger teammates. “I can’t imagine doing what they did at my first Games… I’m so grateful because it’s really the best team I’ve ever been a part of.”
After Alvarez’s frightening incident during the FINA World Aquatic Championships, Fuentes, 41, described the situation as “a difficult nightmare” during an interview with PEOPLE shortly after it happened.
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Fuentes said that initially, she “didn’t think [Alvarez] was going to pass out at all,” despite noticing that the swimmer’s “feet were a little bit more pale than usual.”
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“I thought that she was just doing a huge effort and I was proud of her because that’s the world champs, it’s the final. So I was like, she’s pushing through her limit as much as she can,” Fuentes explained.
It wasn’t until Alvarez didn’t come up for a breath after the routine that her coach knew something was wrong.
Fuentes told PEOPLE, “I realized that she was not okay because in our sport, it’s really important to breathe when you finish. So as soon as she went down, I immediately recognized that she passed out. I know her very well, I see her a lot of hours every day.”
The coach’s first thought “at that moment” was, “I have to take her out,” and she “was not expecting” anyone else to jump into the water. “I didn’t even think [if] I have to go or not, I just went,” she said. “So, I just went as fast as I could and it was I think the longest 25 meters of my life.”
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“We reached the surface and I noticed that [Alvarez] was not breathing,” added Fuentes, who didn’t freak out in the “really scary” moment. “I just said, ‘Do whatever it takes to make her breathe.’ So my only goal was to fix it.”
After the silver medal win, Fuentes told Olympics.com, “It was magic,” adding, “It has been a dream of a system that we have created.”
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