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New York Post
12-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Team USA swimmer who nearly drowned during competition reveals surprising new career change
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. 4 Three years after a Team USA artistic swimmer nearly drowned when she went unconscious and sank to the bottom of a pool, she has revealed she graduated from basic Air Force training in January. Kurstyn Canida / USAF 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. 4 After the near-death experience, Alvarez decided to embark on a new career prospect while continuing to train for future Olympic games. AFP via Getty Images 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 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. 4 She is the first medalist and 15th Olympian to join the special recruit program. 37th Training Wing '[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.' 4 Alvarez said her time training at the Texas base prepared her to be 'a better leader and a better person.' 37th Training Wing 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 her 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.'
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Sinner denies beneficial treatment in doping scandal ahead of Italian Open return
Jannik Sinner has insisted that he did not receive preferential treatment from anti-doping authorities as he prepares for his return to action at next week's Italian Open in Rome following a three-month ban which caused anger among a section of the men's tennis tour. Italian Sinner heads into his home tournament, the last major event before Roland Garros kicks off next month, with some suspicion that the world number one was treated leniently after twice testing positive for traces of clostebol in March last year. Both the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), whose exoneration of Sinner was announced in August, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted that he did not gain any competitive advantage from the banned substance, and that he bore no fault for an accidental contamination. 'I've been criticised for supposedly being treated differently (to other players who tested positive), but it's not true,' said Sinner to public broadcaster RAI. 'I've had to go to a lot of hearings and they've probably tested me more than others. I don't want to respond to criticism, people are free to say what they want and judge people. What matters to me is that I known what I've been through, it was difficult and I wouldn't wish anyone to go through that as an innocent person.' Sinner, whose ban ends on Sunday, has always said that clostebol entered his system when his physiotherapist used a spray containing it to treat a cut before providing a massage and sports therapy. Heavy atmosphere But he was facing a potential two-year ban from tennis before he agreed in February to a three-month suspension with WADA, who had previously appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against his initial exoneration. WADA said explicitly that Sinner 'did not intend to cheat', but the agreement sparked fury among a section of the men's tennis tour and even led to high-profile criticism from his compatriot Federica Pellegrini, an Olympic swimming champion. FILE PHOTO: Italy's Federica Pellegrini poses with her gold medal during the podium ceremony for the women's 200m freestyle final during the swimming competition at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest. | Photo Credit: AFP 'When there's contamination, as happened to me, or if you ingest something while eating without realising it, and the doctors say it doesn't give you more strength or clarity, that's a different matter. There's a whole protocol,' Sinner said. 'I really had a hard time accepting the three months because in my mind, I didn't do anything wrong.' The affair hung over Sinner's head just as he was rising to become the best player in men's tennis and a three-time Grand Slam champion. Sinner won eight titles in 2024, including the Australian and US Opens and the ATP Finals, and he started this year with his second straight triumph in Melbourne. But Sinner said that he hit 'rock bottom' at the most recent Australian Open, where he thought about 'giving it all up'. 'I wasn't comfortable in the dressing room, the other players looked at me differently,' he said. 'I didn't like it at all. I felt like being in tennis with that atmosphere was too much. I was always someone who joked about, who went in the dressing room speaking with whoever, but it became different, I wasn't at ease.'
