Filipino gymnast Levi Jung-Ruivivar went into anaphylactic shock Monday and went to the emergency room at the Olympic Village in a scary moment at the 2024 Paris games.
In an interview with Gymcastic.com and in a post on her social media, Jung-Ruivivar, who holds dual citizenship in the United States and the Philippines, recalled the harrowing ordeal that occurred earlier in the week.
“I actually don’t know what happened,” Ruivivar, a former USA gymnast, told the outlet, according to USA Today. “I don’t know what it was from. I hadn’t eaten anything in three or four hours. I don’t know what got in my system, but it was really, really bad. My whole face swelled up.”
In a post on Instagram, Jung-Ruivivar, 18, said it all started when she went on an evening walk and started to have an anaphylactic reaction out of nowhere, adding that she hadn’t had any tree nuts — which she is allergic to — and wasn’t bitten by any bugs.
After returning to her room and calling her parents, she made her way to the medical center inside the Olympic Village in Paris, but on the way, her symptoms worsened, and she had to use her EpiPen.
Jung-Ruivivar wrote that she was treated well by the staff there and that she was “100% safe and healthy.”
“My muscles are fatigued and it definitely took a toll on my body, but I am doing everything I can to recovery and perform at my best possible level,” she wrote on Instagram.
Jung-Ruivivar was on the Olympic floor Thursday for podium training, and she wrote in her post and told GymCastic that she would be competing in qualifying on Sunday.
“[It] does suck,” Ruivivar told GymCastic. “Leading up, the preparation was going really well and I was feeling good. My body will just continue to recover, but it took a lot out of my system.”
She will compete collegiately as a freshman this upcoming school year at Stanford University.
