Anthony Lee Ervin (born May 26, 1981) is an American competition swimmer who has won four Olympic medals and two World Championship golds.

He was the second swimmer of African descent after Anthony Nesty of Suriname to win an individual gold medal in Olympic swimming.

[1] He is the first United States citizen of African descent to medal gold in an individual Olympic swimming event.

[3][4] Ervin stopped swimming competitively at the age of 22 in 2003[5] and auctioned off his 2000 Olympic gold medal on eBay to aid survivors of the 2004 tsunami,[6][7][8] but he began to train again in 2011.

"[22] While living in Santa Clarita, he swam for Canyons Aquatic Club, and also competed on Hart High School's swim team.

[23] Anthony enrolled and swam for the University of California, Berkeley, under Hall of Fame Head Coach Nort Thornton Jr., receiving his bachelor's degree in English in 2010.

[7] As a youth, Ervin had tics that he described "as an itch that constantly [wanted] to be scratched"; as a young adult he would attract negative attention for the symptoms.

[25] He states that swimming helped him manage his facial tics when he was young and the condition made him learn how to cope with anxiety from an early age, which benefitted him when he was in the Olympic finals.

In his first event at the World Championships, Ervin combined with Nathan Adrian, Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, with the team finishing behind France.

At the age of 35, this made him the oldest individual Olympic gold medal winner in swimming, taking the record from Michael Phelps.

[22] At the 2020 USA Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska and held in June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ervin competed in the 50-meter freestyle.

[42] The week of competition at the 2021 World Short Course Championships, held at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Ervin conducted a swim clinic with Florian Wellbrock of Germany for young swimmers.

[10] Co-authored by Ervin and Constantine Markides, Chasing Water received The Buck Dawson Authors Award from the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2018.