A chilling scene unfolded Thursday morning at the 2024 Olympics when Slovakia swimmer Tamara Potocka collapsed after the women’s 200-meter individual relay heat and was carried off in a stretcher.
Medical personnel on the scene said the 21-year-old was conscious, according to the Associated Press, and she was wearing an oxygen mask after receiving first aid.
Potocka is a first-time Olympics entrant and she collapsed right after exiting the pool in Nanterre, France, with her seventh-place finish, according to the report.
Medical professionals immediately came to her aid and she was placed on a stretch approximately one minute after collapsing, per the AP.
“This doesn’t look good,” one of the BBC commentators said, as transcribed by The Sun. “Fifteen-thousand people are now watching an athlete surrounded by medical staff and I can assure you it’s absolutely silent in here.
“They’ve got a stretcher out, they’ve got an oxygen mask on the athlete and I’m going to say … this looks very serious.”
It’s unknown if she received CPR.
“Of course that’s something in the back of your mind, but we do every day push ourselves to the limit,” Israel swimmer Lea Polonsky, who competed in a later heat, told the outlet. “You always know something like that can happen. It’s not something you think about during the race, but it’s always there.”
Potocka missed the cut by finishing with time of 2:14.20, finishing 4.30 seconds behind heat winner Summer McIntosh of Canada.