Anthony Ervin

Hobbies

Travelling, music, tattoos, teaching people about swimming. (anthonyervin.com, 08 Jul 2012)

Education

Cultural Studies, Education, Sport Studies - University College Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Coach

Dave Durden (USA Swimming, 16 Jul 2012)

Additional information

General
RETIREMENT
The former world record holder for the 50m freestyle shocked the swimming world when he announced his retirement in 2003 at the age of 22, having won Olympic gold and silver medals, two world championships, and seven NCAA titles at the time. (anthonyervin.com, 16 Jul 2012)

COMEBACK
Having returned to UC Berkeley to finish his college degree and then embarking on a master's degree in sport, culture and education, he got back into the pool after a college assignment where he was asked to write about his relationship to sport – an assignment that produced an outpouring of 50 pages. "I never really called it a comeback, first of all," he says, "I just left sport behind a number of years ago." After initially training with the women's swimming team, he swam an exhibition swim in a meet against Stanford in February and in December he won the 100m freestyle at the 2011 Chesapeake Elite Pro-Am in Oklahoma City, his first competitive swim in seven years. (Cal Alumni Association, Summer 2012)

OUTSIDE INTERESTS
During his time away from the sport, he spent several years travelling the world and exploring other interests, including his higher education and, music – he once played in a band called Weapons of Mass Destruction. He has also worked in a tattoo parlour, as a bookkeeper and taught people all over the world about swimming. He auctioned his Olympic gold medal on the Internet in order to raise funds for the Tsunami Relief Fund in Asia. (anthonyervin.com, 08 Jul 2012; espn.go.com, 02 Jul 2012)

Previous Olympics

Sydney 2000