Golden oldie Golden oldie

Jewish swimmer is oldest to win Olympic race in pool

At ripe age of 35, American Anthony Ervin caps comeback from burnout following first gold medal 16 years ago

By JTA 16 August 2016, 4:20 am

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Anthony Ervin of the USA reacts after winning the Men's 50m Freestyle Final during the swimming event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 12, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

American Jewish swimmer Anthony Ervin became the oldest Olympic gold medalist in an individual swimming event, at 35 capping a comeback from burnout and drug use in the aftermath of his gold medal at 19.

Ervin edged France’s Florent Manaudou by one one-hundredth of a second in the men’s 50-meter freestyle race Friday night in Rio.

The son of a Jewish mother and a father with black and Native American roots, Ervin won his first Olympic gold medal in the same event in 2000.

“When I touched the wall, I saw a 1. Kind of the absurdity, the surrealness of it all,” Ervin said, according to USA Today. “I smiled and laughed. It just seems so unlikely.”

Ervin, of suburban Los Angeles, won a second gold medal earlier in the week in the men’s 4×100-meter relay.

He had quit swimming in 2003 and, as he details in a memoir published in April (“Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian”), spent his 20s experimenting with drugs, playing guitar and teaching the sport in Brooklyn, New York.