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RIO DE JANEIRO -- In order to reach the starting blocks of the Olympic 50-meter freestyle final, Anthony Ervin had to get down on one knee. It wasnt a formal prayer, but rather a humble and fearless admission that he wasnt done learning at age 35.In pursuit of a third Olympic appearance 16 years after his first, Ervin migrated to Charlotte in the spring of 2016 to train with veteran head coach David Marsh and a stellar training group at the SwimMAC Carolina Elite club.Ive got no pixie dust, Marsh told Ervin, but he was happy to have him. Ervin commands respect among his fellow athletes for his fluid technique in the pool and the wisdom gained from diverse and sometimes wrenching experiences during a eight-year hiatus from the sport. He makes people around him laugh, he makes them think, and he makes them stare in wonder at the way he arrows through the water.Ervin was in need of help with one crucial flaw: His dive. Like a gymnasts early bobble on the balance beam, fractions lost on the start can cancel out the other 20-plus seconds of brilliant execution in the 50 free.The best in the water, the worst off the blocks, Marsh said. Tonys so good up on the surface of the water. We want to get him up there quick as we can.Marshs club has the use of a contraption called a Kistler machine, which overlays a starting block with force plates and measures a swimmers acceleration out of the dive through the first 15 meters. The coach tried adjusting Ervins feet, making subtle changes to pressure and weight shift.Finally, he decided to strip things down. Marsh took Ervin to the deep end of the pool, put a kickboard on the ground and had him kneel, point his hands and plunge, just as the coach would with a 10-year-old. Diving 101, Marsh said. Then we progressed to standing up -- literally, he did dives like a novice swimmer. We took it all the way back there, and somewhere in there, we found it.The deconstruction gave Ervin an average of about three-tenths of a second over the first 15 meters -- a pinch of pixie dust that has helped propel him into Friday nights 50-meter final, within reach of an individual Olympic medal for the second time since he tied Gary Hall Jr. for gold as a raw 19-year-old in Sydney in 2000.Ervin auctioned off that medal for tsunami relief in 2004 after the massive loss of life in Indonesia. He was done with elite sport and all its trappings at that point, done with people trying to mine his mixed racial and ethnic heritage to reach some greater conclusion. He had detoured into a different kind of fast lane, immersing himself in self-discovery via self-destruction, and navigating some riptides along the way.It gains so much momentum from your youth and it becomes an existential question: Did I exist just for this? Ervin told me of the disorientation he felt in his early 20s. What now? Where is the purpose? Sometimes theres no answers at all and theres this silence that can whisk something out of you. He filled the void by self-medicating with drugs, sex, a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit and progressively riskier motorcycle rides that brought him to a literal precipice. Ervin chronicled that journey in a recent memoir, Chasing Water: Elegy of an Olympian, written in alternating sections of first- and third-person with co-author Constantine Markides.Writing about the aftermath of one especially reckless trip, Ervin recalled, In one fell swoop, that sense of invincibility that Ive been feeling for so long evaporates in a snarling hangover of coke and Vodka and acid... I could have and should have died last night.In Berkeley last year, many months before the book was released, Ervin gave me a preview of how forthright it would be, and added, I hope my parents are OK with it. This week, his mother Sherry said she stood behind his right to tell the story but hopes he writes a sequel, or at least an epilogue. She didnt understand the depth of his darkness, and in retrospect, Im glad, she said on the phone from South Carolina. I wouldnt have been able to do anything about it, anyway. Anthony digs in his heels, and if you push him, he just digs harder.Tony, as hes known nearly everywhere in swimming except the official start sheets, was Sherry and Jack Ervins middle son of three, innately warm and generous and such an avid reader that Sherry found herself unable to carry through with the sternest punishment she tried to impose -- taking away his books. At 11, Ervin was diagnosed with a mild form of Tourettes Syndrome that had to be managed with medication.As a teenager, Ervins original spirit and his athletic talent alchemized into one ropy, elegant world-class sprinter who endeared himself to a series of coaches -- all of whom are invisibly embedded in his stroke.He will never fit into anyones system, but benefits from everyones system, said Mike Bottom, the University of Michigan head coach who was one of Ervins early mentors at Cal. Ervin returned there to train with mens and womens head coaches Dave Durden and Teri McKeever in his 2011 comeback, and also did a stint at Dave Salos Trojan Swim Club at the University of Southern California before alighting in Charlotte last spring.Teaching inner-city kids to swim was an important part of Ervins journey back to the pool, which makes it all the more fitting that he was willing to go back to a childhood space with Marsh to rebuild his dive. But that was just the final tweak after years of internal work to travel at great speed with little effort, as the coach put it.It shows on land as well. At the U.S. Olympic swim trials in Omaha last month, hundreds of children, senior citizens and adults in between lined up for an autograph and a few words from the man with the high-wattage smile and the inked arms. Behind Ervin was a giant cover image of his book, which depicts him underwater in the lotus position, floating taut but somehow comfortably -- which sums him up in general. He has transitioned into being a more public person without artificial packaging, a true feat in the world of Olympic sport, where narratives are often enhanced with a little helium.Maybe youve just gotta drink some of your own Kool-Aid to know youre gonna make it through, Ervin said, speaking of the dips and spikes of any athletes life, and specifically about himself. After all, you did become an Olympian, against all those odds. Neil deGrasse Tyson said its OK to encourage others to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but if you do, just remember, some people have no boots.That being said, anyone whos an Olympian or an Olympic champion, they have their own boots.With understandable pride, Sherry Ervin said her son has already won by getting to Rio, whatever the outcome. He already has a 4x100 freestyle relay gold at this meet that is a tribute not only to his talent, but also the years hes put into enhancing team chemistry as a co-captain.His ambition is to finish well, and hes not finished yet, Marsh said after Ervin qualified for the 2016 team in Omaha. After all these years in the water, that finish could come down to the open mind that gave him a fresh start. Air Force 1 Cheap Outlet . PETERSBURG, Fla. Cheap Air Max 270 China . 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Tevez, who has had conflicts with coaches in the past, has not been called up since Sabella was named coach in 2011. Argentina boasts Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Angel Di Maria. Haseeb Hameed has been urged not to rest on his laurels following the impressive start to his Test career. While praising Hameeds remarkable second-innings half-century in Mohali, Joe Root also encouraged his young colleague to respond to his early success by working ever harder.Having received widespread acclaim at the end of the Mohali Test - not least from Indias captain, Virat Kohli - Hameed now returns to England for an operation on his hand following a serious break of his little finger. But any danger that he might let the praise go to his head - and, to be fair, it doesnt seem as if there was much danger - will have been dispelled by Roots gentle words of warning and encouragement.The only advice I gave was, make sure you dont go back to county cricket at the start of the summer and rest on your laurels, Root said. Dont think: Im a Test cricketer now.Its an opportunity to prove to everyone in county cricket that you are there for a reason. You have opportunities to make some really big scores, to keep learning and to keep improving. He has the opportunity to put the good work he has done in India into his game and continue to develop the way he has done.Roots words are both well-intentioned and wise. As he found after an encouraging start to his own career, Test cricket is hugely demanding and the pain of being dropped at the end of the Ashes tour of 2013-14 continues to motivate him.So while Hameeds start has been exciting, Root wants him to be ready for the challenges ahead and to know there is much, much more to achieve. He also warned that more will be expected of Hameed now and that will bring different challenges.Still, Hameed returns to England having made an excellent impression. It is not so much the runs he scored - two half-centuries in six innings does not look so special, after all - but the composure with which he batted under pressure and in conditions in which his colleagues have struggled. Aged 19, he already looks one of the more composed batsmen in the side.The way he played with a broken hand the other day was remarkable, Root said. For such a young lad to show composure, to manipulate the strike and also hit some of the best spinners in the world for boundaries was very, very impressivee.ddddddddddddFor a 19-year-old lad to come into this environment and be so composed and mature… You watch him practice, and you would think he had played 60 or 70 games. Its great to see someone come in with that attitude and hopefully, that stays with him for a long time.He will have different expectations in the future and that might be a different challenge. But he has got a very good head on his shoulders and he should be proud of what he has done so far. Now it is about managing those expectations and being realistic: its going to take time to keep developing and it might not always go how he wants. But sometimes you have to have those little tumbles to get right to the top. Im sure that if he does have some hard times, hell get through it.It is revealing to study Hameeds dismissals. Of the five of them, one was a run-out (for which he was largely blameless), one came as he tried to up the pace in a bid to set up a declaration in Rajkot, one came when he was the victim of a shooter in Vizag - a truly unplayable ball - and another came when he received a delivery that reared off a length in Mohali. There were one or two signs of weakness, mainly against the short ball, but his figures do not flatter him. He looked assured, elegant and ready.The ECB undertook some research a few years ago that underlined the impression that players who do well do so at the start of their Test career.There are notable exceptions either way, of course - Graham Gooch suffered a pair on debut; David Lloyd had an average of 260 after two Tests - but it might be telling that, of the last England side to reach No. 1 in the Test rankings, four of the batsmen (Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior) made centuries on debut and two others (Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell) made half-centuries. One of the bowlers (James Anderson) took a five-for on Test debut, too, while another (Graeme Swann) too two wickets in his first over.The confidence of those early experiences may well have laid the path to subsequent success. Whichever way you look at it, Hameed would appear to have a bright future. ' ' '