where she was walking her dogs.

Miss Paula Lewin -- who plans to compete in the European Dinghy class of the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996 -- said the mishap occurred when she was walking her Labradors, Hamilton and Josephine, along Marley Beach in Warwick on Sunday afternoon.

Miss Lewin told The Royal Gazette she was standing on a rock with the dogs and three other people when a wave caught them off guard.

"The wave was so strong, it was unbelievable,'' she recalled, adding that her dogs were washed off the rock into the water by the wave.

And without thinking, the Olympic sailor jumped in after them to try and save them.

"Josephine was sucked out by the surge but managed to get into an eddy where my brother Andreas pulled her out of the water,'' she said.

"I was half in the water and half on the rock and could see Hamilton about half an arm's length away in between the waves. I was yelling `Swim Hamilton! Swim!''' She said she managed to grab the dog and, with the help of the people on the shore, got him out of the water.