After earning team silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics, artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez joined the US Air Force’s World Class Athlete Program. She completed basic training over the winter, and now the three-time Olympian will compete with a whole new perspective at the World Aquatics Championships – Singapore.
It’s been fascinating to watch the evolution of artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez. Singapore will mark her seventh World Aquatics Championships, dating back to 2015 Kazan when she was 18 and the youngest member of the US team. Seven years later, in Budapest, Hungary, she famously blacked out at the end of her free solo routine, sunk to the bottom of the pool, prompting then-US coach Andrea Fuentes to dive in fully-clothed to bring her to the surface. (Photos of the rescue ricocheted around the world.) In 2023 Fukuoka, Japan, Alvarez captured her first world championship medals (silver and bronze in team events).
Now an Olympic medalist at 26, with a team silver from Paris, Alvarez will be competing with a new military title and a whole new perspective.
On Thursday, we caught up with Alvarez on the pool deck in Singapore.
You’re in the Air Force’s World Class Athlete Program [which was established in 1995. All told, 14 of its athletes have represented the US at either the Summer or Winter Olympics Games – but Alvarez was its first recruited medalist, according to a program spokesman.] How does the military mesh with artistic swimming?
“The program has allowed me to focus on my next career, a career in the Air Force, and continue pursuing my career in the pool.
The US Air Force has so many different career paths to explore and pursue so it’s an exciting opportunity. Of course, becoming a pilot would be super cool, but it depends on when I decide to be done in the pool. For now, my main priority is to be an athlete – representing USA and the Air Force in the pool – while allowing me to figure out which direction I want to go.”
When did you do your basic training and when did you return to artistic swimming?
“I officially shipped out on November 19th, 2024. I went to San Antonio, Texas, for seven-and-a-half weeks of training. After that, I went to Mississippi for more training. I’m an E-3, Airman First Class. I returned to the team in early March.”
How did the seven-and-a-half weeks of boot camp compare to training for artistic swimming?
“One of the hardest parts for me was being on land so much: a lot of standing, a lot of walking, marching. Not a single touch of water – except when it rained. Then it was like, ‘Oh my gosh! Water!’ That’s the longest I can remember not being in a pool since I was a child. Aside from all the walking and stairs, we had one hour of physical training a day.”
One hour? Normally, you’d train about eight hours a day for artistic swimming, right?
“Yeah. I can do anything for an hour, you know – AND I could breathe! I didn't have to hold my breath. I didn't have to look pretty while I did it. There were so many good things that kept me going. Of course, if you exert your max effort, it will be hard. But what we do in the pool in our sport doesn't compare to anything I've done [elsewhere] in my life.”
How did you decide to come back for another Olympic cycle? What tipped the scale?
“I knew for a while. Before Paris I never wanted to say ‘I'm gonna go for another one.’ But in my heart, I knew – especially with the next one being in LA, my home country, home city, and where we train. We ended on a high in Paris, and some people were like, ‘Why don't you end on that?’ But the results were never top in my mind. I'm super happy and grateful [with the silver]. Before my first Olympics [in 2016], I never thought I'd get anywhere close to a medal, really. So, yes, that's an extra cherry on top, but as cliché as it is, it's about all the years in between and everything we'd gone through up to that point that made receiving that medal so special. So it was obvious for me: I didn't want to be done. I wanted to at least give it another shot. If I make it one year and realize I don't want to do it anymore, that's it. But if not, year by year with that vision of LA, that extra motivation [will] help me keep going.
How would you describe the dynamic on your seventh world championship team?
Every World Championships has had a different meaning, and every team has been completely different. Right now it's cool. We have half returning veterans and half new youngsters. I used to coach some of the young ones on the club team; I never thought I would be swimming with them on a world championship team. And Tammy [McGregor], our head coach, was one of my very first coaches on junior national team. So it's kind of a full circle, you know? And this is 2025. We still have three more years until 2028, so there’s not tons of pressure. So much can happen before then.
What keeps bringing you back to artistic swimming? What did you miss most about it when you were in boot camp?
I think I would've had a different answer before, but I guess it's just the home of the water. After being out of the water for eight or nine weeks, once I got back in, I felt so comfortable. It truly is a second home, the way it feels and the way that we've learned to master the water and not fight against it. We know how to surrender to it and we know how to move with the water to make it an art. That’s the part that’s really special and hard to explain. And it’s hard to realize it if you don't have the time out of the pool, like [when] you’re so used to it that it's your everyday thing.”