They had done everything together for the last year, so it only seemed right that American swimmers Gary Hall Jr. and Anthony Ervin step onto the winner’s podium together at the Olympics.
If nothing could separate them in practice, then neither would something as silly as an electric timer in competition. On Friday night, the culmination of all their work ended with their touching the wall at the same time–or at least the same time as far as the latest in modern timing devices could tell. The 50-meter freestyle ended with Hall and Ervin staring at a scoreboard that showed both had finished in 21.98 seconds.
“It took me a little bit of time to realize that we had tied,” Hall said. “I couldn’t be more happy about it. If I have to share the gold-medal podium with anybody, I couldn’t be sharing it with a nicer guy.
“I knew it was going to be close, but I didn’t think it was going to be that close.”
The 50 freestyle is a blink of an eye in the first place, and whoever wins in the Olympics normally does so by an eyelash. But until Friday night, a tie for first place in the Olympics had been unprecedented for the men.
It made perfect sense that Hall, who turns 26 Tuesday, and Ervin, 19, would find themselves raising their arms together in a victor’s celebration
“This race wasn’t that much about fast times as it was about racing,” Ervin said. “And the fiercest racers ended up on top.”
Bartosz Kizierowski of Poland, who finished fifth Friday night, also trained with Hall and Ervin. They worked out with the Phoenix Swiming Club under coach Mike Bottom, a former Olympian who added some unconventional elements to the program, including boxing drills.
“We definitely pushed each other, whether that was in the weight room or the swimming pool or punching a heavy bag,” Hall said. “We pushed ourselves to limits that otherwise I would have never reached had I trained on my own.”
For Hall, who was diagnosed with diabetes in March 1999, Friday night’s race was final proof that the most important element in swimming is heart. Several doctors had told him he would never compete at an elite level again. On Friday he knocked off the king of sprinting, two-time defending Olympic champion Alexander Popov.
Hall said there have been times when he has had to give himself as many as eight insulin shots a day.
“It’s very nice to overcome so much adversity,” he said. “The diabetes was really a factor in my life, not just my swimming career. To win at the Olympics is something that was never expected by anybody. It’s a tremendous statement as to what can be done and how one can live his life with the benefits of modern medicine.”
Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands, who already had won two gold medals in these Games, won the bronze Friday, finishing in 22:03. Popov was sixth.
Ervin is the first swimmer of African-American descent to win a gold medal, but he downplayed the distinction.
“I feel people are trying to pin me down to say one definitive thing when it’s not ever been an issue with me,” he said. “I’ve never really thought of it. I feel that in American society today that … having diverse blood is not that big a deal.”
Brooke Bennett grabbed her second gold medal of the Games, winning the 800 freestyle in an Olympic record 8 minutes 19.67 seconds, just over a half-second off Janet Evans’ 12-year-old world record. Evans is considered one of the best swimmers in history.
“I think I have a long way to go before I catch Janet’s legacy,” Bennett said. “She’s the distance queen of U.S. swimming and will be for a long time.”
“I don’t think there has to be only one legend,” said teammate Kaitlin Sandeno, who won the bronze medal. “I don’t think we only have to have one queen of swimming. We can have two.”
In the semifinals of the women’s 50 freestyle, Dutch star Inge de Bruijn broke her own world record, going 24.13. It was her 11th world record in the last year.
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Long into Friday night, though, the buzz was about two American swimmers who had reached out and touched the wall at the same time, a rarity in swimming. Hall had never tied in a race. Ervin said he had, once.
“One time at junior nationals I tied for 24th place,” Ervin said, laughing.