Filippo Magnini: Italian Olympic swimming star saves drowning tourist

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Magnini won medals at both the Olympic and World Championships

If you venture too far out of your depth it helps to have an Olympic bronze medal swimmer nearby.

Italian Filippo Magnini rescued a tourist who was drowning off a Sardinian beach on Sunday.

The former world champion plunged in after friends of the man shouted to sunbathers on Cala Sinzias beach, just east of Cagliari.

Magnini kept the man's head above water until lifeguards arrived with a raft, Italian media reported.

“I just did what I had to,” the retired sportsman said later.

The rescue was witnessed by Marco Bencivenga, chief editor of the Cremona local paper La Provincia, who reported it on his Facebook page.

Reports say the tourist got into trouble as he was swimming to retrieve an inflatable swan that was being blown out to sea.

His friends' cries for help were heard by lifeguards, who raced to set off in their rescue raft.

But 37-year-old Magnini, 1.88m (6ft 2in) tall, was closer and quickly reached the struggling man.

“The bather was in a lot of trouble: he was quite frightened, he was really stuck and had swallowed some seawater,” Magnini said, quoted by Italy's Corriere dello Sport.

“When I reached him he wasn't even able to speak, and it wasn't easy to lift him on to the raft, so we laid him on an airbed that some other bathers had nearby.” No details were given about the man who nearly drowned.

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Magnini with his girlfriend, Italian TV star and model Giorgia Palmas

Magnini was on the beach with his girlfriend Giorgia Palmas, a well-known Italian TV celebrity and model.

Magnini was in Italy's 4x200m freestyle relay team which won bronze in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

He was also world champion in the 100m freestyle in 2005, and retained that title in 2007 when he tied with Canadian Brent Hayden for gold.

More stories on related topics:

• Ten times more men than women die in sea

• Swimmer recounts near-death experience

• Coastguards quit in beach rescue row

How to spot someone drowning

There is such a thing as the “Instinctive Drowning Response” which, experts say, gives little indication that a person is drowning. That response means they do not usually thrash around.

Survival experts Mario Vittone and Dr Francesco Pia, writing in the US Coast Guard journal On Scene, say:

• Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing, so speech is secondary

• Drowning people's mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. Their mouths are not above the surface long enough for them to call out; they exhale and inhale quickly as they start to sink

• They cannot wave for help - nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water's surface

• The response keeps their bodies upright in the water, without any supporting kick

• They can only struggle on the surface for 20-60 seconds before sinking.

There is more advice here on how to revive someone pulled from the water.