Tonawanda Swimmer Headed To Olympics After Scary Moment In Pool

Tonawanda native Anita Alvarez is headed to the Olympics in Toyko following some scary moments in the pool during qualifying.

Alvarez who is part of the Artistic Swim team loss consciousness while in the pool near the end of her routine with her partner Lindi Schroeder. Her coach jumped into the pool to grab her and pull her to the pool deck where she received medical treatment for about 5 minutes before being taken away by a wheelchair.

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She was cleared to return to the competition and did so for her tech routine but was later replaced by an alternative swimmer. The alternative swimmer Ruby Remati finished the competition along with Schroeder and they placed 5th overall earning a trip to the Olympics in Tokyo.

A Tweet sent by USA Artistic Swimming announced that Remati would fill in for the rest of the competition and also stated that Alvarez was doing fine and that she was taking a break to let her body recover.

This will be a return trip to the Olympics for Alveraz. She placed 9th overall in the Rio Olympics back in 2016.

The qualifying for the Olympics was happening in Barcelona, Spain over the weekend.