Swimmer who fainted in pool during world championships
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Anonymous
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10944325/Swimmers-coach-leaps-pool-save-life-FAINTED-water.html
Surprised no one has posted about this yet. I’m not a swimmer but curious to get insight from all of you who know so much about swimming. Have you ever seen anything like this? |
Anonymous
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Apparently this type of swimming has the athlete holding their breath for long periods of time. Seems like it could cause fainting.
Additionally, this is another good reason to never swim alone. Even Olympic athletes faint in the pool. |
Anonymous
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This is from 2021:
"The intensity of the routines and the long stretches that swimmers must hold their breath for has resulted in some athletes passing out during performances. Swimming’s global governing body, FINA, now warns in its judging manual that artistic swimmers who hold their breaths for more than 45 seconds risk hypoxia. Though the sport focuses less on breath holding skills than it once did, swimmers still spend a significant chunk of their performances below the surface. The Australian team, for example, is underwater for a total of 2 minutes and 20 seconds of their 4-minute routine, Thompson says. In June, U.S. artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez briefly lost consciousness at the end of her duet routine during the Olympic qualifier in Barcelona. After spotting the 24-year-old slipping beneath the surface, coach Andrea Fuentes yanked her mask down and dove, fully clothed, into the pool to rescue her. Alvarez, who has undergone a battery of medical tests since then, says she still doesn’t know exactly why she fainted that day. But she suspects it was a mixture of physical and emotional exhaustion, plus the specific movements at the end of the routine." https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/brutal-beauty-artistic-swimming-tokyos-toughest-sport-79202516 |
Anonymous
| I would fire all the lifeguards on duty. Her coach was the only one recognizing what happened and dived in. |
Anonymous
Apparently this is happened before with this particular swimmer. I read that she fainted last year |
Anonymous
I'd investigate, but her coach knows her much better than anyone else in terms of the routine and knows what she looks like when she is off, so I'd bet the coach realized it before the lifeguards. The coach must have her routine memorized and knew immediately she was off the routine. |
Anonymous
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Wow two plus minutes under water seems crazy. Even still, many swimmers do the sport and fainting doesn't appear to be a common problem. I read that she was underwater/unconscious for 2 minutes at least--that seems worrisome. |
Anonymous
| Two minutes. Useless f’ing lifeguards. Maybe they didn’t realize what was going on at first, but once the coach hit the water they should have been right behind her. She had to struggle to pull an unconscious person from the bottom of a deep pool all alone. |
Anonymous
| It’s definitely possible to pass out if you stay underwater too long. It doesn’t necessarily indicate an underlying condition I don’t think. I was a swimmer and I remember a girl passing out trying to go 50 meters underwater without coming up for air. She had almost made it to the wall when it happened. She probably should not have attempted it as this was our summer team and she was not a year-round swimmer. Though I guess it can happen even to somebody with excellent conditioning. Weird stuff starts to happen when you push your limits underwater. If you push past the sense of urgency to come up for air there is a strange kind of relaxed feeling that comes over you. My guess is the next thing that happens is you pass out. I probably came close to that point once or twice when we were working on kicking long distances underwater. |
Anonymous
| The coach went it because she knew the dive wasn't right and understood specifically the dive. She didn't give the lifeguards even a chance to go in and went as soon as she thought there was a problem. Impressive coach. |
Anonymous
The coach specifically said that she had to jump in because the lifeguards weren’t doing anything. Another bystander jumped in to help get her to the side once the coach brought her to the surface. Still no lifeguards. |
Anonymous
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I was a synchro swimmer and the photos are very traumatic and give me the creeps. I remember at one of our junior meets, one of the young girls hyperventilated when her oxygen/c02 mix got out of whack and the coach had to have her breath into a paper bag. Fortunately she was already on dry land. This can make you faint and I wonder if that is what happened here.
Perhaps there should be rule changes to limit the amount of underwater time. When I swam my solo it was much harder than swimming a 200 fly. You are swimming 4-5 minutes anaerobically. Imagine running a 400m without breathing. Back when I swam, we also used to do compulsory figures (required technical moves) where you were rewarded for going as slowly as possible ie holding your breath as long as possible. I am astounded that they are waiting to make a decision about whether she will swim on Friday. She was underwater for two minutes and I think I read she inhaled water. No, no, no. |
Anonymous
Yep, they apparently froze. |
Anonymous
This was the most shocking part to me. The lifeguards didn’t jump in to help once it was clear there was a problem. |