Dara Torres

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Torres
Firstname
Dara
Country
United States
Date of birth
1967-04-15
Birthplace
Beverley Hills (Californie)
Height
183 cm
Weight
68.0 kg
Disciplines
50m and 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly, relays
World Records
5 (50m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay)
Olympic Games (9 medals - 4 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze)
50m freestyle: 3rd (2000)100m freestyle: 3rd (2000), 7th (1988)100m butterfly: 3rd (2000)4x100m freestyle relay: 1st (1984, 1992, 2000), 3rd (1988)4x100m medley relay: 1st (2000), 2nd (1988 - did not take part in the final)
World Championships (1 medal - 1 silver)
4x100m freestyle relay : 2nd (1986)
Pan Pacific Championships (3 medals - 3 gold)
100m freestyle: 1st (1987)4x100m freestyle relay: 1st (1987)4x100m medley relay: 1st (1987)
Pan American Games (1 medal - 1 gold)
4x100m freestyle relay: 1st (1983)
Waters run eternal for Torres
American Dara Torres was an Olympic swimming champion all the way back in 1984 but a series of staggering achievements have seen her qualify for the US Olympic team for Beijing where she will compete at her fifth Olympiad at the age of 41.
She could easily be the mother of most of her rivals that will line up on the blocks in China where she will target gold in the 50m freestyle and 4x100m relay while she also qualified for the 100m race before relinquishing her place.
After LA in 1984, Seoul 88, Barcelona 92 and Sydney 2000, Beijing will now provide the stage for the lanky Californian swimmer who will become one of the rare athletes to compete at five Olympiads.
Her career has already been a story made in Hollywood with nine Olympic medals, two retirements, two comebacks and a break for maternity.
During her "first" career, she set her first world record at just 15 when she smashed the 50m freestyle mark in January 1983 and then went on to win her first Olympic gold as part of the US 4x100m relay team in her home Games of Los Angelas.
That was followed by a relay bronze in 1988 and a second relay gold four years on at Barcelona when the American girls broke the world record to boot.
Exhausted after 10 years of competition, she retired for the first time at 25 and became a consultant for American media.
41 and counting
The absence of big-time competition inspired her comeback in 1999 when she qualified for the Sydney Games and produced the best competition of her life so far with debut individual medals (3rd in 50m, 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly).
She also won her third 4x100m freestyle gold and a first title in the 4x100m medley where she also became the maiden American female swimmer to compete at four Games.
With her fix of competition satisfied, Torres once again retired and gave birth to a baby girl Tessa in April 2006.
Motherhood was evidently not enough as she again returned to the pool having lost none of her speed and racing to the US 100m freestyle title in August 2007 before breaking the 50m national mark just three days later.
Then in July 2008 at the age of 41, she won the 100m freestyle race at the US Olympic trials which booked her historic ticket to Beijing along with a place in the relay quartet.
On top of that her time in the 50m free was the seventh fastest of all time, just .28secs outside the world record held by Aussie Libby Lenton-Trickett.
The West Coast veteran can now realistically dream of another individual medal when she will take on Lenton-Trickett amongst others in the 50m race.
Furthermore as part of the powerful US relay team her chances of gold in that event are also extremely good which would be her fifth team triumph.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - AFP)first published:August 02, 2008, 17:23 ISTlast updated:August 02, 2008, 17:23 IST
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