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The James Altucher Show

Ep. 283 - Anthony Ervin: Overcoming Your Battles: How an Olympic Swimmer Transformed Tourette's Syndrome into Winning Gold

The James Altucher Show

James Altucher

Education, Business

4.62.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2017

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Anthony holds a lot of weird records. But the most interesting to me is the record for the biggest span between winning golds. SIXTEEN YEARS.    But first, let's start from the beginning. Anthony Ervin always had a gift for swimming. He had the talent. He had the coaching. And he had the success from an early age. But there was something else looming. Tourette's. I asked him how it happened. "What was the first things you noticed about yourself when you developed Tourette's?" "It was debilitating," he said. "I felt a lot of nervous energy running through the body and that energy needs to find an exit." It escaped through his eyes, his jaw, his neck. "It took a long time cause originally you want to fight this. You want to imprison this energy just to make it stop. But my eventual tactic for it was to take that energy and move it through my entire body. Specifically to move it into my swimming," Anthony said.   He used it as a weapon. He turned a negative into a positive. And it ultimately led to success in swimming. He first went to the Olympics when he was only nineteen. He won gold. But he wasn't ready for the mantel of responsibility that came with winning.   "I quickly fell off the mountain," Anthony said.    He battled with depression and addiction. He dropped out of college. He stopped competing. He self-medicated. And he kept this secret inside. He forgot all about his athletic success.   I really wanted to understand why. What is the catalyst for a comeback? In this podcast, Anthony Ervin, 3 time Olympic gold medalist reveals how he did it...   Make sure to read the full show notes here: https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/11/anthony-ervin/ And don't forget to subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts! ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This isn't your average business podcast and he's not your average host.

0:06.4

This is the James Altiger Show on the Choose Yourself Network.

0:10.4

Today on the James Altiger Show.

0:15.0

How old were you when you developed your ex?

0:17.0

12.

0:18.0

What happened? What was the first thing you noticed about yourself?

0:20.0

You originally want to fight this. You want to like imprison this energy just to make it stop.

0:25.0

But my eventual tactic for it was to take that energy and move it throughout my entire body

0:30.0

specifically to move it through the mechanics of my swimming.

0:33.0

Do you feel you were able to hone it into the swimming and you succeeded at doing that?

0:37.0

I have to believe that, right?

0:39.0

I want to believe that the approach of this trying to constantly suppress it

0:43.0

and make it disappear doesn't work.

0:46.0

And that giving this energy a place to go in a positive way

0:51.0

was what led me to a lot of my success as an Olympic athlete.

1:02.0

I've got Anthony Irvin in the podcast.

1:06.0

Four-time Olympic gold medalists? Is that right? Or five-time? Five-time with the last one?

1:10.0

No, no, no. I've only got three goals.

1:12.0

Only three goals. You overshot me a little bit. You don't want to over-hype me.

1:15.0

And also, you have a record of the biggest span between winning a gold here and a gold here.

1:21.0

There was 16 years between my Olympic golds.

1:24.0

There's all these weird records. This is kind of the funny thing.

...

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