Did you know that Mark Spitz – formerly the greatest swimmer on the planet, tried to stage a historic comeback at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games? He failed to make the US swim team after falling two seconds behind the qualification mark, which denied him any further addition to his Munich 1972 world record haul of seven gold medals.
Spitz couldn’t, for obvious reasons. Swimming is hailed as a young man’s sport, proven year-on-year by the fastest finishers being teenagers or college graduates in their early 20s.
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When a story like 35-year-old Anthony Ervin’s springs to the fore, at the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world, you cannot help but take note, and be awed at his achievement.
On an epic night at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio, when history’s most decorated Olympian was reduced to a silver medal by his next-gen admirer from Asia, in the last individual event of his career, California-born Anthony Ervin took on the fastest men to claim his second Olympic Gold in Men’s 50-metre Freestyle.
In the process, Ervin became the oldest swimmer ever to win an individual Games gold medal, clocking a remarkable 21.40 seconds at his age which was one-hundredth of a second quicker than 2nd-placed and ten years his junior Frenchman Florent Manaudou.
However, that is hardly what makes Anthony Ervin a true champion. The only other time he tasted 50-metre freestyle success at the Olympics was at the age of 19, way back in 2000, in the Sydney edition of the games. He shared the top spot with his compatriot Gary Hall Jr. after the final race ended in a dead heat.
Sixteen years apart, as the oldest member of the current US swim team, Ervin reclaimed the crown that had eluded them since Athens 2004 – and his journey up to this point is what makes it all the more special.
Like Spitz, Ervin had announced his sudden retirement at the age of 22, three years after his maiden Olympic appearance. What followed was a series of personal battles that involved everything from dropping out of college to turning homeless, from playing guitar in a rock band to suffering from acute depression that led to an attempted suicide from tranquillizer overdose.
When the Tsunami happened in 2004, he auctioned off his only Olympic gold medal for 17,000$ which he then donated to the Red Cross Tsunami relief fund.
In 2011, Ervin hit the water again, competing in his favourite event – the 50-metre free dash. A fifth-place finish in London 2012 was pretty encouraging for a 31-year-old, but Anthony wouldn’t stop at that. Four years forward, he’s the Olympic champion once again – defying all odds and inspiring a world of amazed spectators.
"Maybe a piece of me wanted to see if I could get that medal back," he told NBC after the victory. "I got it."
