Meet the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swim Team: Anthony Ervin

Meet 2016 U.S. Olympian Anthony Ervin from Southern California. As in all of the videos in this series, Ervin recalls “vaguely” his first race (at 35, he is afterall the oldest member of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team). He says he began to believe in his potential to race against the best in the world in his freshman year of college at Cal, which paid off the summer after when he tied with Gary Hall Jr. for a gold medal at the Olympics in the 50 free. Sometime after that, Ervin disappeared for a time, beginning his almost legendary journeyman status, only to re-emerge before the 2012 Olympic Games to make a second team. 2015 wasn’t a great year for Ervin, but after several coaching changes, he wound up in Charlotte with the head coach of the women’s Olympic Team David Marsh, and on that roared back onto the Olympic Team in both the 50 free and with a possible entry on the 400 free relay. Ervin runs through all of the coaches he’s had in the last year, and it’s a long list, reinforcing that maybe more than any swimmer we’ve seen in the modern era of swimming, he’s going to make his own path to glory.

From his SwimSwam Bio:

Anthony Ervin
His arms are covered in colorful tattoos. He’s been on two Olympic teams, albeit twelve years removed from one another. And he’s got his own line of rock-and-roll t-shirts. He’s Anthony Ervin, America’s guitar-playing and staunchly individualistic pure-sprint freestyler.

Ervin was born on May 26, 1981 in Valenica, Calif. His background represents the diversity of the United States, as he is of European Jewish descent on his mother’s side and African American and Native American descent on his father’s side. Growing up he was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, but that hasn’t stopped him from swimming fast. His book, Chasing the Water Dragon, is set to hit store shelves in 2016.

Anthony Ervin (50 free, 4×100 free relay)