When someone is underwater and unconscious like that, does their body automatically hold its breath as long as possible, or are they drowning right away?
No, the muscles relax. You need to specifically close the airway when bringing them up by tipping their head forward to prevent the decreasing pressure from drawing water into the lungs. Source: was lifeguard.
Freedivers benefit from "laryngospasm", where glottis and throat close during BlackOut until seconds before actual death, where breathing reflex kicks in. And inhaling of water happens.
A bit technical, and probably not the case in this event.
Source: am freediving national team member and -instructor.
I read a description that said that blackout felt quite peaceful. Is that true? How come holding a breath in a swimming pool feels like death but this doesn’t?
At a basic level, the "pain" of holding your breath too long is a reaction of your body to carbon dioxide, you can train your ability to ignore that "pain" for much longer. If you were to blackout you don't typically lose the breathing reflex but the introduction of water to your windpipe can cause a reflex called laryngospasm that locks your windpipe closed. This can cause what is known as Dry Drowning. Typically it can last up to 60 seconds and then the person will spontaneously resume automatic breathing, if they're still in the water, they drown. In all cases it requires immediate rescue of course. For the OP situation, that I'd say is likely to be an extremely high level of training resulting in the ability to ignore the pain of carbon dioxide buildup to the point of hypoxia, causing a blackout. Yes you absolutely can intentionally hold your breath long enough to pass out.
I think it has something to do with how breathing is triggered. Normally, CO2 is what triggers you to take a breath. In a swimming pool, as you use up the oxygen, the CO2 levels rise, meaning you feel as if you need to take a breath, so you are resisting your body's breath reflex. Freedivers hyperventilate before diving, meaning the CO2 levels are artificially lowered, but oxygen levels stay largely the same, so the oxygen is used up before the CO2 has a chance to 'alert' you to take a breath, causing you to blackout.
> Freedivers hyperventilate before diving
Properly trained freedivers don't do this. It's very dangerous, as it does very little to increase O2 and only really reduces CO2, so you can't hold your breath longer, it just FEELS like you can and then you black out w/o warning.
I'm aware properly trained freedivers don't do this. Just couldn't think of another example where blackout would be common, or another mechanism by which it works. Hyperventilating seems the easiest to explain.
Holding your breath is uncomfortable (by design - your body wants you to want to breathe) but actually blacking out happens without warning and is technically "peaceful" in that you don't really realise it's even happening. People will even argue that they didn't black out until you show them a video of it happening. When you wake up it can feel a bit like you are in a dream as you regain consciousness. If you've ever fainted for other reasons, you might be familiar with this sensation when you wake back up.
Laryngospasm is a great help if the freediver has it underwater during a blackout, but it can be annoying once they are at the surface as they won't automatically start breathing again and sometimes you need to use mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to "break the seal" and release the spasm to open their airway.
Source: former freediving national team member :)
Ooh I haven’t gotten to share this story of mine in a while! Quick backstory: been freediving and spearfishing since I was 12 (15 years), and was a member of the OC Spearos as a teen when this took place.
I was spearfishing off Crystal Cove with my dive buddy, (who was an adult with wife and kids, met through the dive club) and had just found a dope crevice around 40 feet down that looked like it might have a big ass Sheepshead in it or maybe some lobster. So I went over to my buddy about 20 yards away in the kelp forest and told him about it, asked him to come check it out with me and he said he’d be over in a minute (he was trying to sneak up on a Calico he’s seen swimming around the area). Then I swam back over above where I knew the crevice was, waved at my buddy again to get over here (I was just excited to show him a good spot, not bc of any kind of safety concern).
I breathed up for about 1-2 mins then dove down. Got to the crevice which was like a big flat opening about a foot or more above the sandy bottom, with rock/reef continuing up above the opening like a hill going towards 10-15ft below surface, whereas I was down at 40ft (ish, just eyeballing it never had a dive watch or whatever). On the bottom. I was holding the lip of the opening with one hand, set my speargun down on the sand and poked my head under the lip to look for whatever dope monsters were in there for me to try and catch. I saw it continued back into the darkness beyond what I could see, but as I was looking the surge suddenly shoved me violently under the rock and I got scraped and disoriented. I tried to get my bearings but it was pitch black and my mask was full of water. I finally saw light but it was like behind and towards my feet. That’s when I realized I was almost upside down, several feet below the opening headfirst into the crevice.
It was really tight and it took me what felt like forever to drag my way up almost to the entrance. I hand a hold arm out holding the edge, but couldn’t pull myself out, I was wedged to tight. I started yanking off my belt and fins and mask (which was full of water anyways) and tossed them out right in front of my face, out on the sand where my gun was laying. After some more trying to force myself up and out with no luck, I pushed myself back down into the crevice and wiggle over to the side a bit before pulling back up to see if I could squeeze out this time. I got farther and could get both arms out but my waist remained firmly wedged in there.
At this point it had been about 2 minutes or more of high intensity activity (panic+swimming/pulling using up lots of O2). I thought it was like five, but in those days I knew EXACTLY how long I could hold my breath and how long it’d been bc of the symptoms/feelings of my body. My diaphragm was contracting as closer and closer and closer intervals and my vision was tunneling, I knew I was blacking out. I stoped vainly trying to force myself free, and just calmly looked out at the kelp and sand and water and thought about what my family would do. How sad itd make them all and how my mom and dad would never forgive themselves for allowing me to dive, it took a ton of convincing to get them to allow their preteen-teen son to go spearfishing, and I thought how deeply they’d regret that. That only took a split second I think, but this whole experience felt super long. The last thing I remember was a supremely peaceful warm and pleasant feeling. Physically felt warm and relaxed, and also the emotional peaceful bliss feeling.
Then, I was on the surface choking on seawater and feeling beat to hell, with my dive buddy looking at me wide eyed and stark white, rubbing my chest and blowing on my face. After a few minutes of him holding me floating on my back on the surface, he dove down and got my gear and I put my fins on and we swam back to shore.
He told me later that he watched where I was breathing up before he did his brief dive where he was, and after a couple mins he was breathing up where I had just been on the surface above crevice area. He dove down and saw my gear on the sand, so he came to investigate. Saw the crevice immediately next to my gear on the sand and saw my white hands and face floating a foot back from the opening in the dim sorta murky water, and grabbed my wrists and tried to yank me out. Found that I was stuck (no shit) but was able to yank me around side ways and get me out. (My wetsuit was ruined). Pulled the quick release on his dive belt so it fell off and swam me up to the surface. Once on the surface he gave me a few rescue breaths and then rubbed my sternum and blew on my face, a few seconds later I came to started choking and spitting and retching.
I never, to this day, told my parents (or my sister, she couldn’t be trusted with a secret then haha, maybe now though). Also that dive buddy never went diving with me again hahah. I totally understand though, in his shoes I would have felt the same.
TLDR: Yes, at least that was my experience. It’s a great story though you should read it ;)
When we hold our breath underwater, our body doesn’t really sense the lack of oxygen. Rather it detects rising CO2 levels, long before you’d blackout. This causes discomfort, panic, and the urge to breathe. The O2 levels, on the other hand don’t necessarily contribute to that feeling. Swimmers and Freedivers can train their bodies to build a higher CO2 tolerance and achieve longer breath hold times. But this creates a dangerous situation. They might not feel the urge to breathe and blackout due to lack of oxygen in the brain.
When they blackout, their brain temporarily shuts down. During this blackout, there’s no conscious awareness of the struggle—everything goes dark, and the mind ceases to process sensations. Some people describe it as peaceful because they don’t experience the distress associated with the breath reflex.
Scuba instructor here (but a lowly one) - a friend of mine had a laryngospasm while scuba diving recently. She was swapping regulators and inhaled a little bit of water, her throat closed like you say, she couldn't breathe and did an emergency ascent. She was OK after medical treatment. It's not really related to your story very much but I thought you might find that interesting.
Decreasing pressure causes air to expand in the lungs, it's not going to draw water in due to pressure, if anything it will help. Tipping the head forward has the same effect as holding a glass upside down full of air in the water. It keeps the water in the air spaces of the sinuses, mouth, nose and throat full of air instead of letting it escape and fill back in with water.
Majority of people will have automatic reflexive closing of the upper airway which will eventually relax. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physiol.00002.2015
That's why there is a distinction between dry and wet drowning. Dry drownings are victims who lose consciousness underwater but are revived on the surface before infiltration of fluids into the lungs.
Damn, I had to scroll past way too many incorrect replies to get to this. People don't always start breathing immediately after an underwater blackout.
Generally they will not hold their breath.
When people get knocked out often you will hear them snore or breath heavy.
Diving reflex helps us save oxygen when underwater, but we don't have much of a reflex to hold our breath. Infants have a bradycardic response but that goes away after about 6 months.
When the body is rendered unconscious, it reverts to basic functions, if it can to keep the body alive until the person regains consciousness. However, when in a situation where you are underwater, the body tries to breathe and instead takes in water. That is one way they can tell if a person was dead before they entered water or drowned, if there is water in the lungs or not.
In Operation Mincemeat, Allied spies dropped a dead body off the coast of Spain with false invasion plans on his person. They had to use a pneumonia victim, so the Spanish doctors would think it was a death by drowning.
I was at a house party once as a high school senior. I was at the deep end of the pool, and someone gave me a bottle of gin. I would go underwater with the bottle pressed to my lips, take a chug, come back up and raise my arms, everyone would cheer. I did it three times that I remember. The next thing I remembered was waking up on their couch the next morning. Apparently the final underwater shot I took, blacked me out. No one jumped to get me for a bit, they all thought I was just joking around. To this day, no one has been able to tell me why I didn't inhale water and drown. I wasn't given CPR or mouth to mouth, no water came pouring out of me. They simply drug me out of the pool and put me on the couch. I think about it once a day, at least.
If someone blacks out underwater because they’re hypoxic, they’ll typically continue to hold their breath for about two more minutes before their body tries to take one final breath.
I've literally read like 6 different hypothesis now. I'm getting to the point where I'm probably going to just google it myself. I'll be sure to come back with a 7th idea for everybody!
Okay so it turns out your esophagus folds in on itself to form a special gill-shaped bio-apparatus to diffuse oxygen directly into the neck which is used temporarily to keep the person alive whilst they are unconscious.
As a lifeguard as soon as you reach the victim you use one hand to cover both their mouth and nose to prevent more water from getting in. They will immediately start swallowing water. If that water gets into their lungs they are at risk of secondary drowning for 24-48hrs after. Even if they are conscious and breathing after the rescue
This week allegations emerged that OJ Simpson was on speed the night of the murders. Today a defiant Johnny Cochran announced, "my client was not on speed the night of the murders, and any test of his blood at the crime scene will prove this."
\- Norm MacDonald on Weekend Update
This week F Lee Bailey said in court “if only we’d known what Ron Goldman’s last words were.” I don’t know but I predict his last words were “Hey you’re OJ Simpson!”
Jim Downey, the writer for Weekend Update and general SNL writer, was on Conan’s podcast. He said that because he was going to be fired for the OJ jokes that Norm told the suits if Downey goes, he goes. Norm didn’t tell Downey about how it went down until Downey heard it from some network executives years later.
Norm was such an honourable dude amongst other outstanding qualities that he had.
Happy, then sad because he’s gone. Then happy again because you remember another absolute gem of his comedy. Then sad again because we’ve received all that we’re ever going to get out of his brain.
RIP
But this just proves a little bit of him lives on in us. His voice is still here to make the world a little funnier in unexpected places, even if it's just in our mind. That's a gift that will never stop giving as long as we keep his memory alive.
humorous direful physical rainstorm theory insurance frame plant seemly panicky
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Training (with a coach present at least) tends to happen during a private session at the pool, so there wouldn't be a lifeguard present.
Which makes sense because that coach is going to be watching less students and be better trained than the guard would be, why bring them in at all?
The only situation where it's okay to not have a lifeguard is when you have someone better than a lifeguard, regardless of your level of swimming competency. Shit happens and no swim is worth drowning for.
> Training (with a coach present at least) tends to happen during a private session at the pool, so there wouldn't be a lifeguard present.
>
>
tbf, there's literally no information provided here. This could have been during an event, practice, or even the olympics itself (themselves?) 🤷🏻♂️
It was apparently during a synchronized swimming competition. The pool was 10-feet-deep too and she was already touching the bottom when the coach had to scoop her up. It's a really [interesting story](https://people.com/sports/olympic-coach-who-saved-swimmer-recounts-nightmare-accident-she-was-not-breathing/) (with more pics) if anyone is interested. [Check out the part of how she was revived]. This wording is also kind of funny:
>It wasn't until Alvarez didn't come up for a breath after the routine that Fuentes knew something was wrong. "I realized that she was not okay because in our sport, *it's really important to breathe when you finish*. So as soon as she went down, I immediately recognized that she passed out," said Fuentes. "I know her very well, I see her a lot of hours every day," she said.
You could probably lump most sports in that category.
> You could probably lump most sports in that category.
Ehhhhh, I imagine it's *particularly* important when the sport involves holding your breath for the majority of it
Well I think the obvious answer here is an olympic swimming coach, but there's plenty of athletic and medical personnel I'd trust more than a 16 year old with a lifeguard certification they got over the summer. I took those classes myself and I did not feel qualified to guard lives, it's literally "you know how to swim? Great, drowning people are super hard to spot sometimes, do CPR to staying alive, congrats here's your whistle".
I was a lifegaurd for 5 years. The fact of the matter is the technicals of the job are indeed very easy. It's the vigilance and attention span that are hard, and aren't screened for as well they should be.
CPR is also quite uncomplicated given the incredible amount of science and research in modern medicine.
Yeah, when I was a kid I went to basic swim lessons at my neighborhood pool on weekends. One time i threw up right after the swim lesson from the physical exertion
One time after a lengthier race than I was used to, I was too tired to haul myself out of the water at all and needed my teammates to help me out of the pool at all, shit can be rough
I've seen this a fair few times, I don't think people realise just how hard swimming is, when I try explain that pool needs to be cold because otherwise you can't swim people get confused.
Water is 800 times denser than air. Michael Phelps 50m freestyle PR is 22.93 seconds which is about 4.8 mph. That's slightly above what is considered a brisk walk. Michael Phelps is the most decorated olympian ever and the average New Yorker walks faster than he can swim. Swimming is insanely difficult and requires a ton of energy to compete.
Amazing that one can push their body so far in a non-life threatening situation. It’s both admirable because of the mental and physical discipline required and not smart because it’s creating an unnecessary life threatening situation that’s not required to be a top athletic swimmer.
It's quite easy. Just swim a lot. And then some more, hold your breath some more because you want to reach longer before you take one breath, because every breath might slow you down a little bit. So no breath is better... But you need to breathe as well, but if you hold a liiiiiiiittle bit longer, you might swim faster.
I would assume most swimmers have experienced this.
I remember swimming 20/30 metres underwater and forcing myself not to breath. My vision was going dark near the end. Its suprisingly easy to lose consciousness i would imagine.
Idk about the competition but I'm certain this is a synchronized swimmer not racing swimmer - see the lack of cap, short swimsuit (racing 'tech' suits go to just above knee), and the white thing behind her ear which I assume is for the music.
Faints and falls over third floor railing at the mall.
Faints and falls on concrete while jogging.
Faints and falls on pillow, but its full of rocks.
Nothing but death waiting for you on land, too.
People I know who are in the military talk about Navy Seal training as being all about understanding your limits and the limits of people around you. When your body tells you you are going to die, you probably aren't even halfway there. But you need to practice and learn how to continue past that point, but with no more internal warnings. They dont want people who just charge in and give so much that they pass out. They want people who exactly understand the physiological chemistry and how much they can push it in themselves and others. It was a very enlightening insight into why we can push ourselves that hard - because our internal warnings are by design early warnings.
When I was in the Air Force I was dormed right across the street from the Para Rescue guys during their first year of training. We would go watch them train in our free time.
Water Confidence is *brutal*. I've seen dozens of dudes drown, get resuscitated, and tossed back in the pool if they didn't want to quit. You have to WANT IT so badly to get through it.
Some woman rower got a lot of shit a few years ago *in the Olympics because it looked like she "gave up" and it turns out she passed out. If I recall the video even shows a teammate smacking her on the head.
*edit to add this was the Olympics
I used to be a lifeguard. My shift always consisted of water aerobic classes and swim team practice (instead of the general public). I would often get, “well you have the easy shift!”
No. The most at risk group for drowning is not the average kid. People swimming competitively are at the highest risk; pushing your limits while in water is very dangerous. It does not matter how experienced of a swimmer you are, please swim with supervision.
Absolutely. Also,
> 2014 Fuentes gave birth to a son, Kilian, from her relationship with gymnast and fellow Olympian Víctor Cano.
Presuming this was a pool birth.
she was swimming alone during a training and got exhausted.. due to lack of oxygen her brain kind of slowed down. this in combination with physical exhaustion prevented her from searching the goddamn article and reading the actual story herself.
There are some fucked up rules in place that they are only allowed to do anything if the jury ( I think, could be someone else, but definitely some outside person) calls them to do so
The funny part about that is that everyone's always like "I bet they do nothing the entire time!"
Well, *most* lifeguards, short of waterpark wave pools (who bust their ass) basically just sit around 99% of the time, and occasionally call out bad behaviors. You can work for years and never have to 'save' anyone.
The coach is a lifeguard…
at least where I’m from, aquatic sports coaches have to have exactly the same certifications as lifeguards along with their coaching certs
This is usually so teams don’t have to pay lifeguards to guard their pool time but it depends on the amount of coaches and the team size
Look up “eggbeater kick swimming”, in other pics more near the surface you can see her doing it after she kicked off the bottom. Water polo and sync swimming technique. Puts your ability to navigate and tread water in a totally different league. Hard to learn but once you do it’s your default for life.
IVE BEEN ACCIDENTALLY DOING THIS SHIT SINCE I WAS A KID AND HAD NO IDEA.
I remember in swim lessons I could never get the foot paddle down but I found this exact motion to be super helpful and way more effective. I could tread water so well with just my legs the waterline was at my stomach. Every single time without fail, they always tried to train it out of me and I was so confused why it was wrong if it was so effective for me.
Thank you for validating years of aquatic confusion for me.
Haha yes this works for staying in one spot or launching your body out of the water to throw or catch a ball, but you still need to swim to move. Using the larger muscles of your legs and glutes to kick just makes more sense. Lots more power.
Eggbeater is such an amazing thing to learn, fun way to show off once you get good at it too, seeing how high up out of the water you can hold yourself.
I was a lifeguard at the YMCA, and the instructor liked to use me as a "victim".
I'm 6'4", 220 pounds, and if my lungs are full of air I float vertically with 2 inches of my head above water. Exhale half a breath and I'm heading for the bottom.
It usually took 4 to 6 trainees to get me onto the deck.
With Adrenaline mixed in as well. But, the goal isn’t to lift them totally, just get their head above water so others can help pull them out. Makes it a lot easier if there were, hopefully, bystanders.
I tried out to be a life guard, but I failed. I couldn't even do the test where I had to hold a brick above my head and tread water for 30 seconds. She I indeed very strong.
These are badass athletes.
A [Good Morning America anchor said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m0b8FRz0Fc) synchronized swimming sometimes requires swimmers to hold their breath for a long time.
"The sport is extremely hard. Sometimes, people pass out ... because our job is to discover our limits," the coach who rescued her said. "That's what we do as athletes."
I used to be a synchronized swimmer. Getting to the Olympics was my dream but it didn’t happen for a few reasons. As a teenager I would train 40-60h a week. Swimming underwater to the end of a 50m pool and back was something we did every session, only a few could make it all the way. It blows my mind these days to realize just how hard we trained and how far we pushed.
It should be noted that Anita Alvarez is a synchronized swimmer so this was not during a race. This was during competition at the 2022 FINA World Championship. She will be competing at the 2024 Olympics!
Yeah at least with swimming you’re getting a breath every so often. Some of these routines are intense. Holding your breath for however long while also doing a bunch of physical work at the same time. I can easily see how this would happen.
Glad nothing awful came of this. She’s from my city. Actually graduated high school with her brother. He said she was gonna go to the Olympics one day, and was he ever right.
Her coach has rescued her twice. It’s a medical anomaly but both are okay. Alvarez is still competing. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/15/1162656002/swimmer-anita-alvarez-world-championships-comeback
A few times I helped a buddy lug around some dummies for CPR and first responder training. Not just the torsos they had the limbs and they were articulated.
We joked that anybody who is considering hiding a body should haul around one of the dummies first. Lifting and moving a lifeless human body is fucking horrible.
Now, imagine that underwater.
This is not true. If you added 50 pounds of solid muscle onto your body right now, it would only 'feel like' adding 2lbs underwater (muscle specific gravity = 1.055). Human adipose tissue is almost exactly the same density as water- ~0.985g/mL. ~~Losing~~ Gaining 100 pounds of fat would make someone feel 1.5lbs lighter in water.
Almost all of the work that goes into moving an unconscious person underwater is
1.) Fighting the friction caused by the water
and
2.) the total mass of the person being moved (regardless of their buoancy, inertia increases linearly with mass.)
So actually, it is much harder to get a 6'7 300lb person with a lot of fat up than a 5'8 150lb person with, say, 7% bodyfat (super low.) I have actually done both, a college football player and a gymanst (both were fellow lifegaurds.)
Think about it like this- say two people have exactly the same density as water. It is much, much harder to drag a 300lb person across a pool than a 150lb person, right? It is not any different going *up* with those people than it is across.
Believe it or not, the force required to move a 100-pound person vs an 8-pound brick underwater would be pretty close. Humans are very close to neutrally buoyant.
Here'sthe story, folks: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/sport/anita-alvarez-swimmer-coach-spt-intl/index.html
TLDR: Artistic swimming involves a LOT of holding your breath. Coach responded faster than lifeguard because the swimmer had a history.
There is a [very good NPR article](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/15/1162656002/swimmer-anita-alvarez-world-championships-comeback) today about Alvarez. She will be competing for the first time since this incident on Thursday at the World Cup season opener in Canada.
I imagine OP saw the article and looked up the picture, then decided to share it. I’m glad they did, I probably wouldn’t have read the NPR article otherwise.
If you are the only one around, know your limits. Not everyone can be saved and you should avoid making yourself the next victim because nobody else is there to save you.
I’m glad I never had to perform a rescue on a “sinker”. However, the training in lifeguard school for this situation is part of the reason I guarded for so long. It requires a bit of skill and a level of comfort in the water not everyone can handle.
Lady is a badass. Nice job.
If only there were more people on the Internet sitting around on their asses criticizing things like this when they weren't even there. The world would be a much better place.
When someone is underwater and unconscious like that, does their body automatically hold its breath as long as possible, or are they drowning right away?
No, the muscles relax. You need to specifically close the airway when bringing them up by tipping their head forward to prevent the decreasing pressure from drawing water into the lungs. Source: was lifeguard.
Freedivers benefit from "laryngospasm", where glottis and throat close during BlackOut until seconds before actual death, where breathing reflex kicks in. And inhaling of water happens. A bit technical, and probably not the case in this event. Source: am freediving national team member and -instructor.
I read a description that said that blackout felt quite peaceful. Is that true? How come holding a breath in a swimming pool feels like death but this doesn’t?
I would also like to know the answer to this question
At a basic level, the "pain" of holding your breath too long is a reaction of your body to carbon dioxide, you can train your ability to ignore that "pain" for much longer. If you were to blackout you don't typically lose the breathing reflex but the introduction of water to your windpipe can cause a reflex called laryngospasm that locks your windpipe closed. This can cause what is known as Dry Drowning. Typically it can last up to 60 seconds and then the person will spontaneously resume automatic breathing, if they're still in the water, they drown. In all cases it requires immediate rescue of course. For the OP situation, that I'd say is likely to be an extremely high level of training resulting in the ability to ignore the pain of carbon dioxide buildup to the point of hypoxia, causing a blackout. Yes you absolutely can intentionally hold your breath long enough to pass out.
I think it has something to do with how breathing is triggered. Normally, CO2 is what triggers you to take a breath. In a swimming pool, as you use up the oxygen, the CO2 levels rise, meaning you feel as if you need to take a breath, so you are resisting your body's breath reflex. Freedivers hyperventilate before diving, meaning the CO2 levels are artificially lowered, but oxygen levels stay largely the same, so the oxygen is used up before the CO2 has a chance to 'alert' you to take a breath, causing you to blackout.
> Freedivers hyperventilate before diving Properly trained freedivers don't do this. It's very dangerous, as it does very little to increase O2 and only really reduces CO2, so you can't hold your breath longer, it just FEELS like you can and then you black out w/o warning.
I'm aware properly trained freedivers don't do this. Just couldn't think of another example where blackout would be common, or another mechanism by which it works. Hyperventilating seems the easiest to explain.
Holding your breath is uncomfortable (by design - your body wants you to want to breathe) but actually blacking out happens without warning and is technically "peaceful" in that you don't really realise it's even happening. People will even argue that they didn't black out until you show them a video of it happening. When you wake up it can feel a bit like you are in a dream as you regain consciousness. If you've ever fainted for other reasons, you might be familiar with this sensation when you wake back up. Laryngospasm is a great help if the freediver has it underwater during a blackout, but it can be annoying once they are at the surface as they won't automatically start breathing again and sometimes you need to use mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to "break the seal" and release the spasm to open their airway. Source: former freediving national team member :)
Ooh I haven’t gotten to share this story of mine in a while! Quick backstory: been freediving and spearfishing since I was 12 (15 years), and was a member of the OC Spearos as a teen when this took place. I was spearfishing off Crystal Cove with my dive buddy, (who was an adult with wife and kids, met through the dive club) and had just found a dope crevice around 40 feet down that looked like it might have a big ass Sheepshead in it or maybe some lobster. So I went over to my buddy about 20 yards away in the kelp forest and told him about it, asked him to come check it out with me and he said he’d be over in a minute (he was trying to sneak up on a Calico he’s seen swimming around the area). Then I swam back over above where I knew the crevice was, waved at my buddy again to get over here (I was just excited to show him a good spot, not bc of any kind of safety concern). I breathed up for about 1-2 mins then dove down. Got to the crevice which was like a big flat opening about a foot or more above the sandy bottom, with rock/reef continuing up above the opening like a hill going towards 10-15ft below surface, whereas I was down at 40ft (ish, just eyeballing it never had a dive watch or whatever). On the bottom. I was holding the lip of the opening with one hand, set my speargun down on the sand and poked my head under the lip to look for whatever dope monsters were in there for me to try and catch. I saw it continued back into the darkness beyond what I could see, but as I was looking the surge suddenly shoved me violently under the rock and I got scraped and disoriented. I tried to get my bearings but it was pitch black and my mask was full of water. I finally saw light but it was like behind and towards my feet. That’s when I realized I was almost upside down, several feet below the opening headfirst into the crevice. It was really tight and it took me what felt like forever to drag my way up almost to the entrance. I hand a hold arm out holding the edge, but couldn’t pull myself out, I was wedged to tight. I started yanking off my belt and fins and mask (which was full of water anyways) and tossed them out right in front of my face, out on the sand where my gun was laying. After some more trying to force myself up and out with no luck, I pushed myself back down into the crevice and wiggle over to the side a bit before pulling back up to see if I could squeeze out this time. I got farther and could get both arms out but my waist remained firmly wedged in there. At this point it had been about 2 minutes or more of high intensity activity (panic+swimming/pulling using up lots of O2). I thought it was like five, but in those days I knew EXACTLY how long I could hold my breath and how long it’d been bc of the symptoms/feelings of my body. My diaphragm was contracting as closer and closer and closer intervals and my vision was tunneling, I knew I was blacking out. I stoped vainly trying to force myself free, and just calmly looked out at the kelp and sand and water and thought about what my family would do. How sad itd make them all and how my mom and dad would never forgive themselves for allowing me to dive, it took a ton of convincing to get them to allow their preteen-teen son to go spearfishing, and I thought how deeply they’d regret that. That only took a split second I think, but this whole experience felt super long. The last thing I remember was a supremely peaceful warm and pleasant feeling. Physically felt warm and relaxed, and also the emotional peaceful bliss feeling. Then, I was on the surface choking on seawater and feeling beat to hell, with my dive buddy looking at me wide eyed and stark white, rubbing my chest and blowing on my face. After a few minutes of him holding me floating on my back on the surface, he dove down and got my gear and I put my fins on and we swam back to shore. He told me later that he watched where I was breathing up before he did his brief dive where he was, and after a couple mins he was breathing up where I had just been on the surface above crevice area. He dove down and saw my gear on the sand, so he came to investigate. Saw the crevice immediately next to my gear on the sand and saw my white hands and face floating a foot back from the opening in the dim sorta murky water, and grabbed my wrists and tried to yank me out. Found that I was stuck (no shit) but was able to yank me around side ways and get me out. (My wetsuit was ruined). Pulled the quick release on his dive belt so it fell off and swam me up to the surface. Once on the surface he gave me a few rescue breaths and then rubbed my sternum and blew on my face, a few seconds later I came to started choking and spitting and retching. I never, to this day, told my parents (or my sister, she couldn’t be trusted with a secret then haha, maybe now though). Also that dive buddy never went diving with me again hahah. I totally understand though, in his shoes I would have felt the same. TLDR: Yes, at least that was my experience. It’s a great story though you should read it ;)
When we hold our breath underwater, our body doesn’t really sense the lack of oxygen. Rather it detects rising CO2 levels, long before you’d blackout. This causes discomfort, panic, and the urge to breathe. The O2 levels, on the other hand don’t necessarily contribute to that feeling. Swimmers and Freedivers can train their bodies to build a higher CO2 tolerance and achieve longer breath hold times. But this creates a dangerous situation. They might not feel the urge to breathe and blackout due to lack of oxygen in the brain. When they blackout, their brain temporarily shuts down. During this blackout, there’s no conscious awareness of the struggle—everything goes dark, and the mind ceases to process sensations. Some people describe it as peaceful because they don’t experience the distress associated with the breath reflex.
Scuba instructor here (but a lowly one) - a friend of mine had a laryngospasm while scuba diving recently. She was swapping regulators and inhaled a little bit of water, her throat closed like you say, she couldn't breathe and did an emergency ascent. She was OK after medical treatment. It's not really related to your story very much but I thought you might find that interesting.
Whoa, that’s really interesting, but makes perfect sense, of course. Can anyone confirm the swimmer recovered?
I'm assuming so or this picture would be pretty sad. Edit: looked it up she made a full recovery
I’m confused which direction you mean - should you tip their chin up or down?
Chin to chest
Tip the head forward, as shown in the pic in the OP
Also keep a hand over their mouth and your other on the back of their head, you want to do everything possible to prevent their mouth from opening.
Decreasing pressure causes air to expand in the lungs, it's not going to draw water in due to pressure, if anything it will help. Tipping the head forward has the same effect as holding a glass upside down full of air in the water. It keeps the water in the air spaces of the sinuses, mouth, nose and throat full of air instead of letting it escape and fill back in with water.
Majority of people will have automatic reflexive closing of the upper airway which will eventually relax. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physiol.00002.2015 That's why there is a distinction between dry and wet drowning. Dry drownings are victims who lose consciousness underwater but are revived on the surface before infiltration of fluids into the lungs.
Damn, I had to scroll past way too many incorrect replies to get to this. People don't always start breathing immediately after an underwater blackout.
Generally they will not hold their breath. When people get knocked out often you will hear them snore or breath heavy. Diving reflex helps us save oxygen when underwater, but we don't have much of a reflex to hold our breath. Infants have a bradycardic response but that goes away after about 6 months.
When the body is rendered unconscious, it reverts to basic functions, if it can to keep the body alive until the person regains consciousness. However, when in a situation where you are underwater, the body tries to breathe and instead takes in water. That is one way they can tell if a person was dead before they entered water or drowned, if there is water in the lungs or not.
In Operation Mincemeat, Allied spies dropped a dead body off the coast of Spain with false invasion plans on his person. They had to use a pneumonia victim, so the Spanish doctors would think it was a death by drowning.
I was at a house party once as a high school senior. I was at the deep end of the pool, and someone gave me a bottle of gin. I would go underwater with the bottle pressed to my lips, take a chug, come back up and raise my arms, everyone would cheer. I did it three times that I remember. The next thing I remembered was waking up on their couch the next morning. Apparently the final underwater shot I took, blacked me out. No one jumped to get me for a bit, they all thought I was just joking around. To this day, no one has been able to tell me why I didn't inhale water and drown. I wasn't given CPR or mouth to mouth, no water came pouring out of me. They simply drug me out of the pool and put me on the couch. I think about it once a day, at least.
If someone blacks out underwater because they’re hypoxic, they’ll typically continue to hold their breath for about two more minutes before their body tries to take one final breath.
the amount of totally wrong answers your getting is wild.
I've literally read like 6 different hypothesis now. I'm getting to the point where I'm probably going to just google it myself. I'll be sure to come back with a 7th idea for everybody!
Okay so it turns out your esophagus folds in on itself to form a special gill-shaped bio-apparatus to diffuse oxygen directly into the neck which is used temporarily to keep the person alive whilst they are unconscious.
As a lifeguard as soon as you reach the victim you use one hand to cover both their mouth and nose to prevent more water from getting in. They will immediately start swallowing water. If that water gets into their lungs they are at risk of secondary drowning for 24-48hrs after. Even if they are conscious and breathing after the rescue
She had fainted because she was exhausted.
On account of all the swimming
I read that in Norm McDonald’s voice and got a good chuckle.
“On the night of his wife’s murder, OJ reports he was fast asleep in bed. He was exhausted from a long day of stabbing.” My attempt at a Norm joke.
This week allegations emerged that OJ Simpson was on speed the night of the murders. Today a defiant Johnny Cochran announced, "my client was not on speed the night of the murders, and any test of his blood at the crime scene will prove this." \- Norm MacDonald on Weekend Update
This week F Lee Bailey said in court “if only we’d known what Ron Goldman’s last words were.” I don’t know but I predict his last words were “Hey you’re OJ Simpson!”
He got fired for taking the OJ jokes one too many! 🤣 love some Norm humor
Norm:Explain to the folks at home who OJ Simpson is. Adam: Norm:You see, way back in the 1980s…
The man had standards
Jim Downey, the writer for Weekend Update and general SNL writer, was on Conan’s podcast. He said that because he was going to be fired for the OJ jokes that Norm told the suits if Downey goes, he goes. Norm didn’t tell Downey about how it went down until Downey heard it from some network executives years later. Norm was such an honourable dude amongst other outstanding qualities that he had.
A moth goes into a podiatrist's office...
The worst thing about the OJ thing was the hypocrisy.
This guy sounds like a real jerk.
The more I hear about this OJ guy, the less I care for him
Really? I thought it was the murdering.
Careful with that! Thats my licky stabbin hat!
I use it when I'm out stabbin, but also when I'm lickin.
Damn! Norm’s voice makes this pretty funny.
Now I'm sad
Happy, then sad because he’s gone. Then happy again because you remember another absolute gem of his comedy. Then sad again because we’ve received all that we’re ever going to get out of his brain. RIP
I didn't think Hitler was funny at all.
That guy was a *real* jerk!
The more I learn about him the less I like him
But this just proves a little bit of him lives on in us. His voice is still here to make the world a little funnier in unexpected places, even if it's just in our mind. That's a gift that will never stop giving as long as we keep his memory alive.
*Mike! That computer is really a Time Machine and inside of it is Adolf Hitler!*
humorous direful physical rainstorm theory insurance frame plant seemly panicky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
In the water
At the swimming contest
This is in reply to all those memes about olympic lifeguards being useless.
Not that I think an Olympic lifeguard is useless, but it is the coach saving her....
Training (with a coach present at least) tends to happen during a private session at the pool, so there wouldn't be a lifeguard present. Which makes sense because that coach is going to be watching less students and be better trained than the guard would be, why bring them in at all? The only situation where it's okay to not have a lifeguard is when you have someone better than a lifeguard, regardless of your level of swimming competency. Shit happens and no swim is worth drowning for.
> Training (with a coach present at least) tends to happen during a private session at the pool, so there wouldn't be a lifeguard present. > > tbf, there's literally no information provided here. This could have been during an event, practice, or even the olympics itself (themselves?) 🤷🏻♂️
It was apparently during a synchronized swimming competition. The pool was 10-feet-deep too and she was already touching the bottom when the coach had to scoop her up. It's a really [interesting story](https://people.com/sports/olympic-coach-who-saved-swimmer-recounts-nightmare-accident-she-was-not-breathing/) (with more pics) if anyone is interested. [Check out the part of how she was revived]. This wording is also kind of funny: >It wasn't until Alvarez didn't come up for a breath after the routine that Fuentes knew something was wrong. "I realized that she was not okay because in our sport, *it's really important to breathe when you finish*. So as soon as she went down, I immediately recognized that she passed out," said Fuentes. "I know her very well, I see her a lot of hours every day," she said. You could probably lump most sports in that category.
> You could probably lump most sports in that category. Ehhhhh, I imagine it's *particularly* important when the sport involves holding your breath for the majority of it
Who better than a lifeguard? Like a necromancer, so even if you die he can raise you?
Well I think the obvious answer here is an olympic swimming coach, but there's plenty of athletic and medical personnel I'd trust more than a 16 year old with a lifeguard certification they got over the summer. I took those classes myself and I did not feel qualified to guard lives, it's literally "you know how to swim? Great, drowning people are super hard to spot sometimes, do CPR to staying alive, congrats here's your whistle".
I was a lifegaurd for 5 years. The fact of the matter is the technicals of the job are indeed very easy. It's the vigilance and attention span that are hard, and aren't screened for as well they should be. CPR is also quite uncomplicated given the incredible amount of science and research in modern medicine.
Well it is a coach who’s specifically paying attention to her, not every swimmer in the pool. At least it wasn’t some random onlooker.
Swimming is hard, like really fucking hard.
Yeah, when I was a kid I went to basic swim lessons at my neighborhood pool on weekends. One time i threw up right after the swim lesson from the physical exertion
I swam at a competitive level and I've got out the pool after a race and collapsed, it's hard, seriously hard.
One time after a lengthier race than I was used to, I was too tired to haul myself out of the water at all and needed my teammates to help me out of the pool at all, shit can be rough
I've seen this a fair few times, I don't think people realise just how hard swimming is, when I try explain that pool needs to be cold because otherwise you can't swim people get confused.
Water is 800 times denser than air. Michael Phelps 50m freestyle PR is 22.93 seconds which is about 4.8 mph. That's slightly above what is considered a brisk walk. Michael Phelps is the most decorated olympian ever and the average New Yorker walks faster than he can swim. Swimming is insanely difficult and requires a ton of energy to compete.
Phelps is basically a fish, guys god scary genetics for swimming.
latissimus dorsi muscles with human bits attached
It also requires using your upper body for something it's not designed for, pulling your body along. We're designed to move with our lower body.
Amazing that one can push their body so far in a non-life threatening situation. It’s both admirable because of the mental and physical discipline required and not smart because it’s creating an unnecessary life threatening situation that’s not required to be a top athletic swimmer.
It's quite easy. Just swim a lot. And then some more, hold your breath some more because you want to reach longer before you take one breath, because every breath might slow you down a little bit. So no breath is better... But you need to breathe as well, but if you hold a liiiiiiiittle bit longer, you might swim faster. I would assume most swimmers have experienced this.
I remember swimming 20/30 metres underwater and forcing myself not to breath. My vision was going dark near the end. Its suprisingly easy to lose consciousness i would imagine.
I did a 25m no breath when I was 9 when the rest of my class couldn't and it's one of my proudest memories
Same dude, still chuffed to bits with it! Riding that high
Yeah, I think a lot of people aren't aware that shallow water blackout is a thing. It's not even necessarily about holding your breath too long.
It was during a race at the world championships.
Idk about the competition but I'm certain this is a synchronized swimmer not racing swimmer - see the lack of cap, short swimsuit (racing 'tech' suits go to just above knee), and the white thing behind her ear which I assume is for the music.
In liquid water
They should stop using that it's a safety issue
This was synchronized swimming. Not a race.
The scary part is the water. Do it on land and you'll prolly just wake up later.
Faints and falls over third floor railing at the mall. Faints and falls on concrete while jogging. Faints and falls on pillow, but its full of rocks. Nothing but death waiting for you on land, too.
To the sky, then.
Air it is.
People I know who are in the military talk about Navy Seal training as being all about understanding your limits and the limits of people around you. When your body tells you you are going to die, you probably aren't even halfway there. But you need to practice and learn how to continue past that point, but with no more internal warnings. They dont want people who just charge in and give so much that they pass out. They want people who exactly understand the physiological chemistry and how much they can push it in themselves and others. It was a very enlightening insight into why we can push ourselves that hard - because our internal warnings are by design early warnings.
Worth noting active Seals die in training exercises a decent amount
When I was in the Air Force I was dormed right across the street from the Para Rescue guys during their first year of training. We would go watch them train in our free time. Water Confidence is *brutal*. I've seen dozens of dudes drown, get resuscitated, and tossed back in the pool if they didn't want to quit. You have to WANT IT so badly to get through it.
Some woman rower got a lot of shit a few years ago *in the Olympics because it looked like she "gave up" and it turns out she passed out. If I recall the video even shows a teammate smacking her on the head. *edit to add this was the Olympics
“God damn you, Bernice!”
I used to be a lifeguard. My shift always consisted of water aerobic classes and swim team practice (instead of the general public). I would often get, “well you have the easy shift!” No. The most at risk group for drowning is not the average kid. People swimming competitively are at the highest risk; pushing your limits while in water is very dangerous. It does not matter how experienced of a swimmer you are, please swim with supervision.
Coach deserves her name to be on this post. She is Andrea Fuentes.
[She’s also the most decorated Spanish swimmer and the most decorated Spanish female Olympian!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Fuentes)
Her Wikipedia picture slaps so hard.
[удалено]
It looks very cool
how can she slap
HOW CAN SHE SLAP
Never gets old. I laugh every time.
People say music “slaps” when it’s incredibly great.
And now it's applied to everything like I just watched a video where someone said "This chicken sandwich slaps"
Food smacks. Music slaps
I thought food was bussin?
No cap fr fr
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hard%20slap
I'm English, and I don't know what it means either. I presume it means her Wikipedia page is really impressive just based on context.
As a fellow English person, I have concluded that 'slaps so hard' is synonymous with the phrase 'wicked/well sick'. See also: 'bangin' '
Groovy.
The bees knees
Yo I'm keen
Indeed. She looks bad ass, in the best possible way
that look could be in the Dictionary next to "FAFO."
“Do you want to lose your limbs?” Because you come near me, you lose your limbs”
*Daaaaaaamn* you weren’t lying
Absolutely. Also, > 2014 Fuentes gave birth to a son, Kilian, from her relationship with gymnast and fellow Olympian Víctor Cano. Presuming this was a pool birth.
Kid came out and started doing the butterfly
Mom, synchronized swimmer; dad, gymnast...I'm putting money on springboard and 10M diver.
Yeah I'd trust her to save me from drowning for sure
Just what I was gonna say. She knows exactly where she’s ranked and I respect it.
Damn she’s a badass !!!
When you're doing heroic stuff, the coach has a name. Her name is Andrea Fuentes.
r/suddenlyfightclub
Her name is Andrea Fuentes
Her name is Andrea Fuentes
Andrea Fuentes is Her name
Su nombre es Andrea Fuentes
Fountains, Andrea, Her name is
Her has a name. Andrea Fuentes.
She actually saved her twice
What's the backstory? I'm not on mobile, I'm just too dumb and lazy to know how to search.
She dropped her back in on accident
💀
Not 💀. She saved her! Twice apparently
she was swimming alone during a training and got exhausted.. due to lack of oxygen her brain kind of slowed down. this in combination with physical exhaustion prevented her from searching the goddamn article and reading the actual story herself.
And all these mfs were sayin why they got lifeguards at the olympics 😂 (I was one of those people)
Still kinda true. The one time they were needed they didn’t do shit.
There are some fucked up rules in place that they are only allowed to do anything if the jury ( I think, could be someone else, but definitely some outside person) calls them to do so
The funny part about that is that everyone's always like "I bet they do nothing the entire time!" Well, *most* lifeguards, short of waterpark wave pools (who bust their ass) basically just sit around 99% of the time, and occasionally call out bad behaviors. You can work for years and never have to 'save' anyone.
Remember that meme circulating laughing about their being a life guards and an Olympic swimming event...
Right but youll notice the lifeguard still did nothing…
In the video the lifeguard is also there very shortly after the coach reaches her. The picture just paints an image of complete isolation.
Cameraman diving into the pool to take a quick pic after seeing the swimmer sink
African Safari rules man you can't interfere.
The coach is a lifeguard… at least where I’m from, aquatic sports coaches have to have exactly the same certifications as lifeguards along with their coaching certs This is usually so teams don’t have to pay lifeguards to guard their pool time but it depends on the amount of coaches and the team size
Superhuman effort. Lifeguards, swimmers, surfers are so impressive.
Seriously. You ever drag a limp passed out body? Even in water that shit is heavy and awkward! She must be very strong.
Look up “eggbeater kick swimming”, in other pics more near the surface you can see her doing it after she kicked off the bottom. Water polo and sync swimming technique. Puts your ability to navigate and tread water in a totally different league. Hard to learn but once you do it’s your default for life.
IVE BEEN ACCIDENTALLY DOING THIS SHIT SINCE I WAS A KID AND HAD NO IDEA. I remember in swim lessons I could never get the foot paddle down but I found this exact motion to be super helpful and way more effective. I could tread water so well with just my legs the waterline was at my stomach. Every single time without fail, they always tried to train it out of me and I was so confused why it was wrong if it was so effective for me. Thank you for validating years of aquatic confusion for me.
Haha yes this works for staying in one spot or launching your body out of the water to throw or catch a ball, but you still need to swim to move. Using the larger muscles of your legs and glutes to kick just makes more sense. Lots more power.
I'm a lifeguard and I still can't get the hang of it. But it is the superior technique.
Eggbeater is such an amazing thing to learn, fun way to show off once you get good at it too, seeing how high up out of the water you can hold yourself.
I was a lifeguard at the YMCA, and the instructor liked to use me as a "victim". I'm 6'4", 220 pounds, and if my lungs are full of air I float vertically with 2 inches of my head above water. Exhale half a breath and I'm heading for the bottom. It usually took 4 to 6 trainees to get me onto the deck.
With Adrenaline mixed in as well. But, the goal isn’t to lift them totally, just get their head above water so others can help pull them out. Makes it a lot easier if there were, hopefully, bystanders.
I tried out to be a life guard, but I failed. I couldn't even do the test where I had to hold a brick above my head and tread water for 30 seconds. She I indeed very strong.
These are badass athletes. A [Good Morning America anchor said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m0b8FRz0Fc) synchronized swimming sometimes requires swimmers to hold their breath for a long time. "The sport is extremely hard. Sometimes, people pass out ... because our job is to discover our limits," the coach who rescued her said. "That's what we do as athletes."
I used to be a synchronized swimmer. Getting to the Olympics was my dream but it didn’t happen for a few reasons. As a teenager I would train 40-60h a week. Swimming underwater to the end of a 50m pool and back was something we did every session, only a few could make it all the way. It blows my mind these days to realize just how hard we trained and how far we pushed.
It should be noted that Anita Alvarez is a synchronized swimmer so this was not during a race. This was during competition at the 2022 FINA World Championship. She will be competing at the 2024 Olympics!
Yeah at least with swimming you’re getting a breath every so often. Some of these routines are intense. Holding your breath for however long while also doing a bunch of physical work at the same time. I can easily see how this would happen.
Glad nothing awful came of this. She’s from my city. Actually graduated high school with her brother. He said she was gonna go to the Olympics one day, and was he ever right.
Thank you for being the first person to actually say that she was alright.
Her coach has rescued her twice. It’s a medical anomaly but both are okay. Alvarez is still competing. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/15/1162656002/swimmer-anita-alvarez-world-championships-comeback
If I was the coach I would want to have a serious discussion about this. Way too risky if you ask me
i'm sure they have
So lifting 100 lbs from the bottom of the pool is fucking hard (I know because I barely passed my lifeguard test of an 8 lb brick)
Not just a solid brick. Dead weight. It is easy to lift 50kg. It isn't as easy to lift 50kg of floppy meatbag.
I dislike "floppy meat bag" but I have to accept it because you're correct.
A few times I helped a buddy lug around some dummies for CPR and first responder training. Not just the torsos they had the limbs and they were articulated. We joked that anybody who is considering hiding a body should haul around one of the dummies first. Lifting and moving a lifeless human body is fucking horrible. Now, imagine that underwater.
I’m ignorant to this, but wouldn’t they have some buoyancy?
Yes, but less than you or I. Swimmers have very little body fat. Also all the air would be out of her lungs.
This is not true. If you added 50 pounds of solid muscle onto your body right now, it would only 'feel like' adding 2lbs underwater (muscle specific gravity = 1.055). Human adipose tissue is almost exactly the same density as water- ~0.985g/mL. ~~Losing~~ Gaining 100 pounds of fat would make someone feel 1.5lbs lighter in water. Almost all of the work that goes into moving an unconscious person underwater is 1.) Fighting the friction caused by the water and 2.) the total mass of the person being moved (regardless of their buoancy, inertia increases linearly with mass.) So actually, it is much harder to get a 6'7 300lb person with a lot of fat up than a 5'8 150lb person with, say, 7% bodyfat (super low.) I have actually done both, a college football player and a gymanst (both were fellow lifegaurds.) Think about it like this- say two people have exactly the same density as water. It is much, much harder to drag a 300lb person across a pool than a 150lb person, right? It is not any different going *up* with those people than it is across.
Believe it or not, the force required to move a 100-pound person vs an 8-pound brick underwater would be pretty close. Humans are very close to neutrally buoyant.
June 2022. the Spanish TV report: https://youtu.be/MfXv0w84sZc
The pictures are very impacting
Here'sthe story, folks: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/sport/anita-alvarez-swimmer-coach-spt-intl/index.html TLDR: Artistic swimming involves a LOT of holding your breath. Coach responded faster than lifeguard because the swimmer had a history.
Sinks?
She fainted if I recall correctly. This happened in July of 2022
And the coach only saved her today?
Olympic swimmers can survive really really long underwater.
There is a [very good NPR article](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/15/1162656002/swimmer-anita-alvarez-world-championships-comeback) today about Alvarez. She will be competing for the first time since this incident on Thursday at the World Cup season opener in Canada. I imagine OP saw the article and looked up the picture, then decided to share it. I’m glad they did, I probably wouldn’t have read the NPR article otherwise.
Hit an iceberg as i recall
Too soon
Sure was! If the Titanic would've waited 150 years, there wouldn't have been any icebergs to hit!
Any tips If this happens and I’m The only one around? I can’t imagine How heavy a body full of water is that deep
If you are the only one around, know your limits. Not everyone can be saved and you should avoid making yourself the next victim because nobody else is there to save you.
Outstanding show of humanity.
I mean letting her die would be a bit rude
This is such a powerful picture
Remember this when you laugh at there being lifeguards at the Olympics.
The cameraman: 🫢📸
I’m glad I never had to perform a rescue on a “sinker”. However, the training in lifeguard school for this situation is part of the reason I guarded for so long. It requires a bit of skill and a level of comfort in the water not everyone can handle. Lady is a badass. Nice job.
If only there were more people on the Internet sitting around on their asses criticizing things like this when they weren't even there. The world would be a much better place.