Anthony Ervin

CTL-E-6898 · Person · other · contemporary

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07770 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6898.

Anthony Lee Ervin (born May 26, 1981, in Hollywood, California, and raised in Valencia, California) is an American freestyle sprint swimmer whose career spans one of the longest arcs in Olympic swimming. At the University of California, Berkeley, he won NCAA titles in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle and broke the world record in the 50. At Sydney 2000, aged nineteen, he tied teammate Gary Hall Jr. for gold in the 50-meter freestyle in 21.98 and took silver in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, becoming the first United States citizen of African descent to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming. He retired in 2003, aged twenty-two, and later auctioned his Sydney gold medal to aid survivors of the 2004 tsunami. Returning to competition in 2011, he placed fifth at London 2012, then at Rio 2016 won the 50-meter freestyle again in 21.40 at age thirty-five — sixteen years after his first title — becoming the oldest individual Olympic gold medalist in swimming, and added a relay gold swum in the heats.

The record

• Also known as: Anthony Lee Ervin, Tony Ervin

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0185. Firsts disposition: ASSERTED in exact form — first United States citizen of African descent to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming (Sydney 2000, tied 50m freestyle). Basis: Tricycle's account (first American of African descent to win a gold medal in swimming) plus the widely carried biographical formulation (first U.S. citizen of African descent to win an individual Olympic swimming gold); the core career record rests on ISHOF and Team USA. His 'oldest individual Olympic gold medalist in swimming' mark (Rio 2016, age 35) is separately supported by Team USA and Berkeley News. Identity note: this is the swimmer Anthony Lee Ervin (born 1981); no other Anthony Ervin is meant. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Ervin's sixteen-year span between identical titles has no real parallel in sprint swimming, a sport that usually discards its champions by twenty-five. The auctioned medal and the comeback make the record read as two careers — prodigy and survivor — inside one. Photo: CLEARED — Kazan 2015 - 50m freestyle swim-off - Anthony Ervin (cropped).jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0. (A JD Lasica 2016 file naming Ervin was passed over: its Commons description adds a 'noncommercial use only' note that conflicts with its CC BY 2.0 LicenseShortName.)

Referenced by

• University of California, Berkeley — has alumnus → this record

Sources

• International Swimming Hall of Fame, 'ISHOF to induct US Swimmer Anthony “Tony” Ervin to its star-studded line up in Class of 2025' (2025) — at UC Berkeley Ervin won NCAA titles in the 50 and 100 freestyle and broke the 50 freestyle world record; in Sydney at 19 he helped the U.S. to relay silver and shared the 50 freestyle gold with Gary Hall Jr.; won both sprint titles at the 2001 World Championships; at Rio 2016, at 35, he edged Florent Manaudou by .01 to become the oldest male Olympic swimming champion in history, 16 years between Olympic crowns — https://ishof.org/ishof-to-induct-us-swimmer-anthony-tony-ervin-to-its-star-studded-line-up-in-class-of-2025/ (primary source · build store)
• Team USA, '16 Years Later, Anthony Ervin Wins 50 Free Again; Becomes Oldest Individual Swimming Gold Medalist' (August 12, 2016) — Ervin, 35 years, two months and 17 days, won the Rio 50 freestyle in 21.40 ahead of Florent Manaudou (21.41), becoming the oldest swimmer ever to win an individual Olympic gold medal; he had tied Gary Hall Jr. in 21.98 at Sydney 2000, stopped swimming in 2003, returned in 2011 and placed fifth at London 2012 — https://archive.teamusa.com/news/2016/august/12/16-years-later-anthony-ervin-wins-50-free-again-becomes-oldest-swimming-gold-medalist.html (primary source · build store)
• Berkeley News, 'Golden Bears bring home 21 medals from Rio' (August 22, 2016) — former Golden Bear Anthony Ervin became the oldest individual swimmer in history to win a gold medal when the 35-year-old won the 50 free in 21.40, and set the mark for the longest span between gold-medal swims in the same event — http://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/golden-bears-bring-home-21-medals-from-rio/ (build store)
• Tricycle, 'How Zen Buddhism Helped Olympian Anthony Ervin Turn His Life Around' (August 15, 2016) — Ervin, son of a Jewish mother and an African American father, was hailed in Sydney as the first American of African descent to win a gold medal in swimming; he retired at 22 and auctioned his Sydney gold medal, donating the $17,101 in proceeds to tsunami relief; diagnosed with Tourette syndrome as a child — https://tricycle.org/article/how-zen-buddhism-helped-olympian-anthony-ervin-turn-his-life-around/ (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6898 · Combined Graph record U-07770 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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