Watch: Olympian Anita Alvarez brings silver medal home, hopes to compete in LA

Watch the full interview in the video player above.

TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) — Artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez is back in her hometown for the first time since winning silver in the Paris Olympics, which is the first U.S. medal in the sport since 2004.

Alvarez grew up swimming for the Town of Tonawanda Aquettes. She sat down with WIVB News 4’s Kelsey Anderson on the pool deck where she got her start in the sport.

She discussed everything she sacrificed to get to this point, including moving away from home at the age of 16 and finishing high school online to train after making her first national team.

Since Alvarez’s first Olympics in Rio, she said she fell in love with the experience of it all and decided to go for more, landing her in Paris.

She shared her thoughts on LA 2028.

“I can’t say no to a home Olympics — I mean it just sounds like a dream,” Alvarez said. “I’m going to give it a shot, why not?”

She also outlined why the team made a last-minute change to their routine in Paris.

Alvarez reflected on the moment she found out the team won silver and celebrating with her teammates.

“Celebrating with a whole team is something so special,” she said. “You go through the hardest moments together — the best moments and the worst moments together — and we’re 10 years in age difference between us all, so we’re all at different stages of our lives, but we’re all going through it together and it just makes the success in the end that much more special.”

Kelsey Anderson is an award-winning anchor who came back home to Buffalo in 2018. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter .