12/03/24
July 07, 2008
Dara Torres, 41, qualifies for Olympics, rewrites swimming records.: Dara Torres qualified for her fifth Olympics, 24 years after her debut in 1984. At 41, two years after having a child, she's still kicking ass and breaking records. Torres swears by resistance stretching and has volunteered for drug tests amid allegations of steroid use. Awesome pic (holy six-pack, Batman!) and more detail about Torres at kottke.org (where I first learned of Dara), plus even more detail at NYT and Wikipedia.
posted by worldcup2002 to other at 04:21 PM - 10 comments
Great story. I really hope she is telling the truth about not doping because if she has been it would be a damn shame.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:48 PM on July 07, 2008
All I can say is wow.
posted by lsutigers96 at 08:26 PM on July 07, 2008
Now she has dropped the 100M race to focus on the 400 relays. While the skeptic in me says...hmmmm, the rest of me applauds her efforts.
posted by dviking at 08:29 PM on July 07, 2008
Hope she wins gold.
posted by sox1903 at 10:15 PM on July 07, 2008
Woops. That resistance stretching link shoulda gone to this site instead.
posted by worldcup2002 at 10:19 PM on July 07, 2008
"I couldn't see the scoreboard," she said. "It was kind of blurry. They need to make the numbers bigger for people my age." hehehe Yingyang, I don't think doping is an issue: “I think a dirty athlete would be crazy to volunteer for this program,” he told me. He was also heartened that Torres did not ask how the pilot’s protocols worked or what drugs they would be looking for.
posted by bobfoot at 11:03 PM on July 07, 2008
She has certainly worked hard enough to win. I wish her the best of luck. Meanwhile, U.S. swimming superstar Michael Phelps set another world record to win the 200-meter individual medley. That guy is crazy.
posted by BoKnows at 01:22 AM on July 08, 2008
I had been watching the trials all weekend while down with pneumonia. I'm glad you posted this story, because there were several times that I thought about doing so, and just never got to it. Pretty amazing, if you ask me. You have here juxtaposed with Gary Hall Jr, on the men's side who, with all of his bravado, wasn't able to get it done. Maybe he'll be back, but this time just happy to be able to give it a shot.
posted by opel70 at 07:49 AM on July 08, 2008
Bravo. Makes one want to take up "resistance stretching" or what ever... tai chi maybe.
posted by Fly_Piscator at 07:58 AM on July 08, 2008
And then she decides to set the U.S. record for the 50m freestyle as well. Phenomenal.