Anthony Ervin made Olympic history on Friday night. Photo: Twitter.

A Jewish-American athlete made history at the Olympics in Rio on Friday night, when he became the oldest swimmer of any nationality to win an individual gold medal, USA Today reported.

According to the report, Anthony Ervin, 35 — who beat US teammate Nathan Adrian and six other competitors in the men’s 50-meter freestyle race — is also the first swimmer to win a gold medal 16 years after doing so the first time. In the 2000 Sydney Games, the former UC Berkeley swimmer tied for the gold medal in the same event he won three days ago.

Ervin’s time — 21.40 — was more than half a second faster than his gold medal-winning time in 2000, according to USA Today. But the Jewish swimmer also won a gold medal with his team earlier in the current Olympics, competing in the 4×100 freestyle relay.

Talking about getting older, Ervin said, “Everybody wants to resist aging but, like, you don’t need to resist aging; there’s dignity in that. It’s a good thing, right?”