By Mike Watkins//Correspondent

Life hasnt been easy or simple over the many years since Anthony Ervin won gold in the 50 freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

After winning world titles the next year in the 50 and 100 freestyles, Ervin was restless in life and swimming fighting some inner demons and within a few months, was contemplating making a drastic, life-altering change.

Two years later, at just 22 years old, he retired, vowing not to return.

He sank deep into a counter-culture trap, playing guitar, growing dreads, tattooing sleeves on both arms and smoking and drinking. Locked in a world of substance use and depression, he attempted suicide by eating a bottle of tranquilizers and had a high-speed chase with the cops in Berkeley, where he swam collegiately, ending with his motorcycle entangled with a Mustang and his shoulder separated and hanging from a sling.

He was headed nowhere fast, swapping Olympic and world venues for tattoo parlors and record shops and looking for a sign of what the future might still hold for him and his amazing talent wrapped in indifference and self-admittedly, arrogance and entitlement.

Read the original:
Anthony Ervin: Loving Life and Swimming... Again