A few days after artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez lost consciousness during the final of the solo exercise at the World Championships in Budapest, until her coach - Andrea Points - jumped to save her from drowning, the American was interviewed today (Saturday) for the first time.
"It's been a long year," Alvarez said in an interview with Good Morning America, while she herself is still in Budapest, just a hundred meters from the pool where she drowned after fainting and sinking to the bottom, in an event that gained worldwide exposure.
"I broke my leg in February, underwent surgery in March, and went back to competing in May - because I was determined to participate in the world championships," the swimmer said.
Asked if she thinks people are aware of how demanding artistic swimming is, she said: "As in any sport, we take our body to the limit and sometimes we push a little too much, people do not understand it."
"Despite the difficulties, we continue as if nothing. At the end of training, we feel like we are dead, sometimes we can not even move. People do not imagine how often these faintings occur. I drew a lot of attention because it happened to me at a world championship. But in this sport, swimmers faint all "Day, it's not just happening to me."
"Now I think the pictures are beautiful in some way," Photo: AFP
Did you feel you were reaching your limit?
"No. I just felt like I was giving it my all in the pool. In the last segment, where I had to say goodbye to the arm lift I remember thinking, 'Push that arm! Don't give up now! Give it your all until the last second!'. I was so into it, I lived the moment It was so intense, and I really enjoyed my show. "
"Sometimes you don't feel pain until you stop. It's like athletics. Sometimes you run and only when you stop do you feel something is wrong. In this exercise I felt great, tired as always, but I enjoyed it. When I felt I could finally afford to relax, it's "It was when everything turned black. I don't remember anything else."
Alvarez after being rescued from the water, Photo: AP
What did you think when you saw the pictures of the coach who saved you?
"At first I was shocked. I did not expect something like this to be published. But then I calmed down. I did not want to see it in a negative way. Now I think the pictures are beautiful somehow. To see me down there in the water, so peaceful, so quiet, and to see Andrea go down into the water And her arm is outstretched, trying to reach me like a superheroine. "
"Sometimes the most peaceful place on earth is underwater: when you sit at the bottom of the pool quietly. You feel you are weightless, you are alone. I love it. Sometimes I need that moment. And in the pictures, everything seems very natural, though to lift a person from the bottom "Pooling and getting it to the surface is very difficult. Especially when you dive to a depth of 10 feet."
Do you want to swim again?
"I rested a lot, all night and all day, and I feel like my body has come back to itself. This is something that has already happened to me. Rest and return to water the next day. It should be done like this, so that the head is not filled with fear. The doctors examined me. That and everything in my head. "
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