{"id":229737,"date":"2026-04-01T05:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229737\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T05:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:10:07","slug":"man-defends-san-antonio-river-walk-plunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229737\/","title":{"rendered":"Man defends San Antonio River Walk plunge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The water of the San Antonio River is\u00a0greener on the other side, apparently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Filmed on March 14 by TikTok user @jac_rae, the video of iThrive AI<\/a> founder and president Ed Olszanowski racked up nearly 3 million views. In it, he first sticks just an arm into the water to try to retrieve a friend’s phone. When that didn’t prove successful, another man is seen holding Olszanowski by the ankles as he dives head-first and comes up with\u00a0the phone.<\/p>\n

Olszanowski told\u00a0MySA in an email that he’s a 20-year veteran of the United States Air Force who has lived in San Antonio since 2002.\u00a0He\u00a0first came forward on March 16, posting a first-person version of the viral dunk to TikTok. Weeks later, he told\u00a0MySA, “I’d do it again.”<\/p>\n

“I was not expecting the viral video at all, [and] I was really just trying to help a friend get her phone back,” he wrote. “I\u2019d ask if [anyone’s friend’s] phone fell right in front of you in the water, wouldn\u2019t you try to help them get it?\u00a0 I\u2019d do it again, it was the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n

Many in the comments under @jac_rae’s video\u00a0were concerned for Olszanowski’s health, saying “he\u2019s about to become an\u00a0X-Men character” and suggesting he head “straight to urgent care for a course of antibiotics.” While the river’s E. Coli levels have previously been reported to be several times higher than what’s considered safe,\u00a0Olszanowski is lucky \u2014 he said he’s doing well and he “didn’t open my mouth or my eyes underwater.”<\/p>\n

Still, health isn’t the only reason why River Walk visitors should avoid the water. A San Antonio city ordinance bans swimming in any body of water in city parks and public areas within city limits \u2014 except designated swimming pools and facilities. “Swimming”<\/a> comes with a wide definition, including bathing, wading and any other recreational water contact. Violations of that rule come with a misdemeanor and a hefty fine of up to $500.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I guess I misinterpreted the law,” Olszanowski said. “I didn\u2019t want to get a ticket for going into the water with my entire body. So, this stranger came up and said he would hold my legs if I wanted to reach in and feel for the phone. I accepted and in seconds I felt the phone. It was one of our friends\u2019 iPhones who was with me. [I] just saw a problem and tried to get around the rules to solve the issue for our friend.”<\/p>\n

For those wondering, Olszanowski reports that the phone did survive being submerged and that he didn’t get a ticket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The water of the San Antonio River is\u00a0greener on the other side, apparently.\u00a0 Filmed on March 14 by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2107,2527,820,82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-229737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-mysaentertainment","9":"tag-mysalifestyle","10":"tag-mysastaff","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","13":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}