Meet Anthony Ervin, a swimmer who won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, retired at 22, begun abusing drugs, at one moment being hardly able to raise from a sofa for days on end. In 2011 he got back into swimming, and at the 2016 Olympics became the oldest swimmer to win a gold medal.

Gold Medalist Anthony Ervin Makes His Olympic Comeback After Drug Problems and Attempted Suicide

At 35, former gold medalist Anthony Ervin is making a comeback

Many of Anthony Ervin‘s competitors were just learning to read and write the last time he won a gold medal, at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, before he abruptly retired – but they know how to spell his name now.

On Sunday, Ervin anchored the qualifying leg that put the U.S. in position to win gold in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, earning him his first medal since he was a teenager. This Thursday he will compete in the 50-meter freestyle – the shortest, fastest race in aquatics.

Few would have expected that Ervin – at 35, the oldest American man to swim an individual Olympics event since 1904 – could have made such a comeback.

“It’s fair to say nobody has been th… Continue Reading

Source: https://people.com/sports/anthony-ervin-returning-for-olympic-gold-as-the-oldest-swimmer/