With a gold medal already under his belt this week, former U.C. Berkeley swimmer Anthony Ervin was set to go for another medal Friday night at the Summer Games.
The Jewish swimmer won a gold medal earlier in the week as a member of the 4×100 freestyle relay team that included Nathan Adrian and Michael Phelps. He previously earned a gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Ervin, 35, who is competing in his third Summer Games, had the second-fastest time in the semifinals of the men’s 50-meter freestyle event. In the Friday night final, he was to face U.S. teammate Adrian and six other swimmers.
Ervin is one of at least three Jews with Bay Area connections competing for the U.S. in Rio, along with rugby’s Zack Test and rower Seth Weil.
On Friday, Israeli swimmer Andrea Murez – a Los Angeles native who studied human biology at Stanford before emigrating to Israel in 2014 – finished 35th in the heats of the women’s 50-meter freestyle and failed to advance to the semifinals.
Murez, 24, failed to advance out of the heats in any of the three events in which she competed at the Summer Games.
A day earlier, the U.S. rugby sevens team that includes Test – a native of Redwood City who attended the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City – finished ninth out of 12 teams in Rio.
The Americans, ranked sixth in the world entering the Olympic tournament, failed to make it out of the preliminary rounds – losing to Fiji and Argentina, and then defeating host Brazil. The U.S. squad then defeated Brazil again and won 24-12 against Spain on Thursday to take ninth place.
Test, 26, was one of two Jews on the U.S. team. The other was Nate Ebner, who took a leave of absence from his job as a safety and special-teams player for the NFL’s New England Patriots.
In rowing, the U.S. coxless four team that includes Weil, 29, of Menlo Park, finished fourth in its semifinal Thursday and failed to advance to the final.