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    Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian
    Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian
    Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian
    Ebook384 pages5 hours

    Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian

    By Anthony Ervin and Constantine Markides

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The Olympic swimmer reveals the wild and challenging journey that took place between two gold medals: “Inspiring, humorous, and often profound.”—People Magazine

    Anthony Ervin is an Olympic swimmer who won the gold at nineteen—and that may be one of the least interesting things about him. An athlete of Jewish and African-American descent who is also a practicing Buddhist, he auctioned off the medal he won in Sydney to help raise funds for victims of the 2004 tsunami. He had grown up battling Tourette’s syndrome, and later struggled with suicidal depression, drinking and drugs, and a period of homelessness.
     
    This blend of memoir and biography, written by Ervin in collaboration with trainer Constantine Markides, is part spiritual quest, part self-destructive bender involving Zen temples, fast motorcycles, tattoo parlors, and rock 'n' roll bands—revealing the journey that preceded his remarkable 2016 Olympic comeback as the oldest individual gold medal winner in swimming.
     
    Winner of the 2018 Buck Dawson Author Award presented by the International Swimming Hall of Fame

    “Gripping…Readers will understand the psyche and life of elite athletes as never before.”—Library Journal

    “A celebrated Olympian recounts how he rose to the top of his sport, crashed, and found redemption…The author never flinches at revealing his less-than-perfect past, and the humility he demonstrates at coming to terms with his own egotism and personal shortcomings makes the book frequently compelling. A provocative and refreshingly honest redemption memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAkashic Books
    Release dateMar 14, 2016
    ISBN9781617754647
    Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian

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    Reviews for Chasing Water

    3.5/5

    21 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm an avid follower of swimming, but have to admit I hadn't really heard of Anthony Ervin, except peripherally. I found this book fascinating (to the point where was trying to finish it waiting for a plane) and an interesting story about an athlete, his demons, the media, and how international Olympic sports have become really corporate-ized and sound bite-d. I highly recommend this read if you like sports biographies, it's definitely one of the better ones!
    • 3/5
      A good read about the complex life of being a top level competitive swimmer and conquering his personal demons.
    • 4/5
      I received this as an Advanced Reader's Copy.I am a swimmer, and reading about other people's experiences with swimming motivates me and inspires me. But reading about an Olympian, I was hesitant. I had expectations of ego and stereotypical lessons learned. What I experienced was completely different. It was pure gold.This is the story of Olympian swimmer Anthony Ervin, told in rotating point of view between Anthony himself and Anthony's friend, the narrator. Anthony's life is about so much more than swimming, which is a big reason why this book is so interesting and different than expected. Another reason that I liked it so much, and that other readers will like it even if they aren't acquainted with the sport, is that Ervin and Markides are readers, writers, and thinkers themselves, so the thoughts and ideas they explore run much deeper than the typical athlete experience. Ervin is a pretty fascinating individual, while being completely and unashamedly human, which he's not afraid to reveal through this book.Really glad I received this book. It's one of the better ARC's that I've received.
    • 4/5
      It’s partly my own fault, I know. I expected a biography/autobiography of an Olympic gold-medal-winning swimmer to be, well, about swimming. Instead, what I read was mostly about that swimmer’s reckless lifestyle. The excessive drinking, the recreational drugs, the casual sex, and the high-speed motorcycle riding (he reportedly got his bike up to 170 mph). His depression. His wandering from couch to couch. At that point, I was sorely disappointed. I wanted to read this book for the swimming, not to learn what it’s like to wake up in a jail’s drunk tank.In the end, though, it picked up. He tried to make a swimming comeback and the last 40 or 50 pages were the best part of the book, detailing his efforts to get back into competitive swimming in 2011-12 and perhaps make the 2012 London Olympic team. As he said, the pool was a prison for him when he was a youth but it later turned into a sanctuary. He's now 33 and trying again next month, for Rio. After his "tortured" life, I'll be curious to see how this latest chapter turns out.In the end, I’d say I liked this book but didn’t love it.
    • 3/5
      This is a good warm-up to the Olympics. I loved the behind-the-scenes look at Anthony Ervin's life and how he was able to overcome his own demons to get back in the pool. Constantine Markides is an excellent writer ... he carried the book from start to finish and threw in analogies that I never would have thought of. Odysseus? Yes!
    • 3/5
      I think I appreciated this memoir of US Olympic swimmer Anthony Ervin because I am a former competitive swimmer and understand the swimming lingo and the dedication it takes to excel in this sport, but non-swimmers will also be informed and amused by Ervin's tales. Ervin talks about what a hooligan he was growing up and how swimming kept him out of more trouble he could have been into. His love/hate relationship with the sport resonates with me, as I'm sure it would with other athletes who had to train hours upon hours a day to try to get ahead in a sport you once loved but come to resent at times. When an opportunity presented itself to Ervin for a free ride to college if only he would continue swimming competitively, he took it with the intent to continue swimming for one year, then move on with his life. That one year led to an Olympic gold medal and some hard partying. While Ervin didn't finish college in the traditional means, he did eventually realize what college and swimming meant to him and made his way back to them both after many years of partying, drugs, and transient living. Ervin and his co-writer are both interesting writers with a sense of humor and this book makes for a quick read in which I found myself rooting for Ervin and his don't-call-it-a-comeback, looking forward to more success for this truly interesting human being. I was happy to have won a copy of this book from LibraryThing.
    • 4/5
      Anthony's book is a strong entry in sports memoir/biography and I especially liked the combination of the two. The end gets a bit bogged down with the Olympic partying of the biographer but that's what happens so although it reads at times like their memoir, at times it is their memoir because they were together. I would have liked to see Moe about the actual training but this is more of the swimmer' s personal story. Creative and at times raw. A must read for anyone interested in Olympic swimmers.Provided by LibraryThing
    • 2/5
      I love to read about athletes who have overcome challenges on their journey to victory. This is not one of those stories. This book was difficult to read as the majority of it was delineating the dangerous and self-destructive acts of the novel's "hero". And, sadly, I have an inkling that his troubles are not all behind him. Anthony Ervin is not a likable protagonist. He seems selfish and undisciplined with a death-wish. I hope he continues to make progress toward a peaceful, healthy and rewarding life. I am looking forward to seeing him the 2016 Olympic trials in June.

    Book preview

    Chasing Water - Anthony Ervin

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