Team USA artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez, who nearly drowned at a competition when she fainted and sank to the bottom of the pool, has revealed her impressive new career chapter.
The Olympic silver medalist fell unconscious just moments after completing her routine in the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, with haunting viral images of her coach, Andrea Fuentes, diving into the pool to save her from the near-death experience.
Now, three years since her brush with death, the swimmer has revealed she joined the Air Force as a recruit, People magazine reported.
Alvarez, 28, returned to swimming to help her team win a silver medal in the Paris 2024 Olympics, but the three-time Olympian, now known as Airman Alvarez, graduated from basic training in January, the outlet reported.
She attended training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and is now a member of the World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), made for Team USA athletes who want to join the armed forces while training.
“Being able to wear two uniforms and get to prepare full time for the next Olympics while also representing the US Air Force just seemed like something I couldn’t pass up,” Alvarez told the outlet.
She is the first medalist and 15th Olympian to join the special recruit program.
“It’s a very cool opportunity,” Alzarez said.
Her close call in 2022 led the Buffalo, New York, native to become even more disciplined as an athlete, she remarked.
“[The incident] blew up way more than I ever thought,” she said.
“But learning how those photos inspired people changed the way I looked at it.”
The experience led Alvarez to feel she was at a crossroads in her career — and joining the Air Force felt like a logical next step.
“A lot of athletes struggle with the question of ‘What’s next?’ when they think about the end of their career and try to figure out what they want to do in the real world,” she told the outlet.
Though training took her out of the pool for a long stint, she said her time at the Texas base “prepared me to return to my team as a better leader and a better person.”
Alvarez has been practicing for the 2025 world championships in Singapore in July and plans on attending the 2028 Summer Olympics — but ultimately is looking forward to continuing her Air Force career.
“I have aspirations to continue serving after [2028]. But right now, the passion for my sport is still there. I’d do it forever if I could,” she said.
“While I cherish my time as a professional athlete, it is also very exciting to have something to look forward to when that time is up.”
