Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on July 26, 2012

by j. staff & wire reports

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 19-year-old swimmer Anthony Ervin took gold in the 50-meter freestyle, along with silver in the 100-meter relay.

The next year, he grabbed two more golds at the world championships, in the 50 and the 100 freestyle.

Then in 2003, at 22, he walked away from it all college as well as competitive swimming. Hed had enough, he told his friends. He was, as more than one media outlet reported, burned out.

What drove him away from the sport was all the attention, and with that, all the expectations, former Cal swimmer Spencer Hawkins told the New York Times last month. Too many people were telling him what to do.

Anthony Ervin photo/ap-mark j. terrill

Im going to London! he crowed to reporters July 1 in Omaha, after posting a personal best of 21.60 seconds in the 50 to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team.

Ervin does what he wants, his own way, in his own time.

He grew up in Valencia in Southern California and took to the waters early, swimming for Hart High School in the nearby town of Newhall.

The media love him. They love his mixed heritage Jewish on his mothers side, black and Native American on his fathers. They love his bad-boy rebelliousness, the tattoo sleeves that run down both arms, the fact that he gave up a potentially lucrative swimming career to play guitar in a rock band. They love that in 2004 he sold his Olympic gold medal on eBay for $17,000, which he donated to Asian tsunami relief; he cant remember what he did with the silver.

See the original post here:
Olympics: Cal’s Ervin ready to swim for gold — again — in London

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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