In Pics | Nick of time: Coach saves US swimmer Anita Alvarez who fainted, fell to bottom of pool

In what was a shocking incident, USA swimmer Anita Alvarez was rescued from the bottom of the pool by her coach Andrea Fuentes on Wednesday (June 22). This took place after she was left unconsciousduring the solo free final at the 2022 FINA World Aquatics Championships, being held inBudapest, Hungary.

Seeing the25-year-old's state, her coach Fuentes, without a moment of hesitation,jumped into the pool. In addition, the coach managed to pull her to the top and brought the swimmerto the edge of the pool before getting some immediate medical attention.

"It was a big scare. I had to jump in because the lifeguards weren't doing it," Fuentes was reported as saying by Spanish newspaper Marca, as quoted by AFP. "I was scared because I saw she wasn't breathing, but now she is doing very well," Fuentes opined.

Four-time Olympic medalist Fuentes also shed light on the reason behind Anita fainting, while talking to theSpanish radio. She signalled out that this happened due tothe effort she exerted while carrying outher routine.

"She only had water in her lungs, once she started breathing again everything was OK," said Fuentes. "It felt like a whole hour. I said things weren't right, I was shouting at the lifeguards to get into the water, but they didn't catch what I said or they didn't understand."

"She wasn't breathing ... I went as quickly as I could as if it were an Olympic final," Fuentes added. "It was very intense," Fuentes told AS newspaper, as quoted by AFP. "I think she was at least two minutes without breathing because her lungs were full of water. But we were able to take her to a good place, she vomited the water, coughed and that was it, but it was a big scare," she further mentioned.

Thus, in what could've been a devastating and disheartening incident, it turned out to be a narrow escape for the US swimmer.

Following this, the USA artistic team also came up witha statement on social media by dwelling more details on Anita.

"Anita is okay -- the doctors checked all vitals and everything is normal: heart rate, oxygen, sugar levels, blood pressure," Fuentes said in the statement. "We sometimes forget that this happens in other high-endurance sports. 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 OK. Tomorrow she will rest all day and will decide with the doctor if she can swim free team finals or not. Thank you for all of your well wishes for Anita," she added.

Talking about the event, Anita -- theUSA Artistic Swimming Athlete of 2021 --was in search of a medal in her third world championships. Nonetheless, she met with disappointment as the youngster failed to reach the podium after finishing seventh and the gold medal was secured by Japan'sYukiko Inui.