Olympic swimmer ‘grateful’ for vaccine passes out in pool

Olympic swimmer Anita Alvarez last week fainted in the swimming pool during her routine at the FINA World Aquatic Championships and was rescued just in time by coach Andrea Fuentes, reported the Daily Mail.

This is the second time the 25-year-old had to be rescued from the pool. During an Olympics qualifying event in June 2021 in Barcelona, Alvarez lost consciousness in the pool and was then also rescued by Fuentes. 

Just a month prior, Alvarez had expressed her gratitude to the vaccine during a Zoom call with other athletes who also expressed their excitement to get the shot. 

“I’m getting vaccinated on Saturday and I’m really excited about it honestly,” said tennis player Dana Mathewson. “With tennis we have to travel to a lot of different countries to compete and our next events are going to be in Turkey, and I don’t - I don’t mean to stereotype or anything but I really don’t know what Turkey’s protocols are with COVID or like, how safe it’s going to be. So I’m really excited that I have a little bit of a training block right now and I have time to get vaccinated. If anything it just gives you a little more piece of mind. And as – as much as there is concern about it being new and you’re not really sure how you’re going to react to getting the vaccine, I’d much rather have a slightly adverse reaction to a vaccine then actually get COVID. So, I’m excited to get vaccinated. 

"Yeah, I’m just grateful to have had access to it,” agreed Alvarez after sharing that she had just gotten her second injection two weeks before. “Like Dana had said, it’s just peace of mind to be able to travel and compete with our team – and obviously we haven’t done any traveling or competing yet besides a couple virtual things.” 

“But just looking forward and ahead towards Tokyo [Olympics], I think we’re just grateful to have gotten access to it,” she said again, before going into the ultimate righteousness of getting vaccinated. “Not just for ourselves and for traveling, but also just for the community and, you know, for more for than just ourselves but protecting the community and beyond. So...yeah, most of my team now has had the vaccine so we’re really excited and happy about that.” 

The next month, Alvarez nearly died after passing out in the pool for the first time.