“I wake up this morning. Realize that I’m about to step on Olympic Ice. Excuse me if you see some tears in my eyes once I am gliding around,” Alvarez tweeted before his run.
Alvarez finished in second place behind triple gold medalist Charles Hamelin of Canada advancing to the quarterfinals of the 1,000 meters.
On Saturday, Alvarez was hoping for a day to remember, but instead he crashed and burned as a Canadian skater fell in front of Alvarez taking him out in the process.
Alvarez was on his third lap when Hamelin slipped, inadvertently elbowing Alvarez in the face giving Alvarez a bloody and swollen lip.
“He got me good; my dad would be proud,” Alvarez said in an interview with Miami Herald, explaining that his father, Walter, used to be a boxing promoter. “My face has seen better days.”
Alvarez, who was not among the top two when he fell, finished third.
“Charles was like, ‘I’m sorry, man’ in his French accent,” Alvarez said in a Miami Herald article. “I said, ‘It’s OK.’ He’s a great skater. It’s unfortunate for him. It’s unfortunate for me, too, but it’s part of the sport.”
Alvarez’s Olympics journey is not over yet, as he will compete in the relay and the 500 meters which he considers his best event on Feb. 21.
Alvarez, who was a walk on for the baseball team, had an outstanding season with the Bruins batting .303 and had a fielding percentage of .900.
“I loved being a Bruin. It was kind of like being taken in by a family…. I created relationships I still have with the guys,” said Alvarez in a Deseret News article.
