Ervin stopped swimming competitively at the age of 22 in 2003, auctioned off his 2000 Olympic gold medal on eBay to aid survivors of the tsunami that followed the 2004 Indian Ocean natural disaster but began to train again in 2011.
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Anthony Ervin won swimming’s fastest race Friday night at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, blasting to a time of 21.40 seconds for a stunning gold medal that he won by a fingertip.
Ervin won his first individual gold medal in a dead-heat in the same event with team mate Gary Hall Jr at the 2000 Sydney Games.
But Ervin shocked everyone when, in 2003, instead of preparing to swim at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, he disappeared from competitive swimming altogether.
He raced to 21.98 seconds at the 2000 Olympics. Phelps was sixth at the turn, at 50m, and starting closing the gap with Singapore’s Joseph Schooling, who surprised many when he qualified ahead of Phelps with a stunning 50.83, the fastest time this recorded this year. She was also part of the US team that won the silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
“For the last 10-12 years, I’ve been transient”, Ervin said.
Ervin says he’s planning to use his success in Rio to help others, not himself: “It’s comforting to know that, in however way, whether it’s misguided or not, it can give inspiration to others”.
Captain Aly Raisman claimed her second Olympic gold when the US proved for the fifth time they have the best women’s gymnastics team in the world.
Friday, he finally got that second individual gold.
If I call Ervin, 35, an old man, all the middle-aged folks who aren’t ready to accept the fact that they’re old will be miffed this morning.
This is a guy who lists “rock star” as his future professional aspiration in his USA Swimming biography.
Marsh suggested Ervin be the one to deliver to Held the news he will remember for the rest of his life, and the captain obliged.
I love athletes who aren’t afraid of having an edge and telling someone else that they suck-but they’d better back it up.
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Ervin’s record-making swim Friday was almost as close. “It brings back so many wonderful memories of when I was swimming, things that this old brain has forgotten”. But for the 100, you’ve got to work for that.
