At 41, Dara Torres wins US Trials and heads for 5th Olympics

What an incredible story. Dara Torres, a mother of 41, has made her 5th Olympics after winning the 100m freestyle at the US Olympic Trials in Omaha Nebraska. She'll be the oldest female to compete in Olympic swimming, 8 years after being the oldest member of the US team in Sydney!

After swimming 53.78, and touching out Natalie Coughlin for gold, Dara will be aiming to add to the haul of 9 Oympic medals, won between 1984 and 2000.

Michael Phelps calls her "Mom", and Dara admits that she finds it harder to recover these days. The solution? She trains less. She's in the pool 5 times per week, and does additional work on core strength and flexibility.

She's been subject to a lot of rumours, that her youthful performances have been pharmacologically enhanced. So much so that she begged the US Doping Agency to test her, as stringently as they could, on an ongoing basis.

Speaking of her victory, the former model said "I don't really think of it as winning or losting. I think of it as making the Olympic Team. A lot of hard work got me here, but I have a lot of great people working with me too. I also have a lot of support from my family"

The following artice from the NY Times is very interesting. Not short, mind:
A Swimmer of a Certain Age


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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com