Since I am in the Dixie Zone, I was perusing the results of meets this weekend and saw that Dara Torres, who turned 40 on Sunday, went 21.91 in the 50 free and 48.34 in the 100 free this weekend in St. Petersburg this past weekend. I guess that she is serious about this comeback. It will be interesting to see how she can do long course.
Since I was at Y Nationals, I looked up results to see how she would have done against the men. There was one 31 yo who was faster in both the 50 and 100 and a 45 yo who was faster in the 100 by a small amount. Pretty incredible.
here's the link to the results
www.midnightsports.com/.../Results.pdf
her scy times show she's in great shape. Obviously she's training for the 2008 Olympics and with those times, she's a definite contender. as far as her comeback is concerned, she's doesn't need to come much further, looks to me like she's just about back.
I'm curious to see how she'll do this summer.
She's got a great shot of making the 4 x 100 free relay,
in the 100 fr I think it's going to take a 53.7 to make top 2 and 54.5 to make top 6
the 50 is a crap shoot but worth training for,
the 200 is 75 meters too far for her
ande
I need to train to beat her in the 100 fr
Since I am in the Dixie Zone, I was perusing the results of meets this weekend and saw that Dara Torres, who turned 40 on Sunday, went 21.91 in the 50 free and 48.34 in the 100 free this weekend in St. Petersburg this past weekend. I guess that she is serious about this comeback. It will be interesting to see how she can do long course.
Since I was at Y Nationals, I looked up results to see how she would have done against the men. There was one 31 yo who was faster in both the 50 and 100 and a 45 yo who was faster in the 100 by a small amount. Pretty incredible.
I think that she's got a great chance of making the 2008 Olympic team in the 50 free. She still holds the American record at 24.63 which is almost .2 ahead of the rest of the field. I think that her 21.91 is her all time PR or at least very close so in theory she could be close to this time (24.63) this summer. Kara Lynn Joyce did a PR at Worlds of 24.80 so I really don't see her improving that much more. Coughlin's PR is 24.98 and she is the only other one in the ball park. Coughlin may opt out of the 50 free given her less than optimal result in this event at Worlds and the schedule of her other events in which she is undoubtedly much stronger. If Coughlin's out, then Dara could turn into one of the favorites.
Her time is my goal in the 50 at nationals. I hope to go a second faster in the 100, though.
Now I have something to shoot for in my freestyle races at nationals, besides embarrassing myself.
By the by, I really am glad to see Dara going for it again.
Wow, she's just amazing. I can't even imagine the fortitude she must have to get back into that kind of shape.
I have one question, why is she swimming in masters meets? Aren't there USS meets that she could swim in?
If a younger person felt they deserve the spot, then they should trainer harder to earn it.
Amen.
Sure, Dara will potentially take the spot of a younger swimmer - she'll be the oldest one there. BUT, with the plethora of elite, professional athletes succeeding well into their 40s (baseball: roger clemens, randy johnson, barry bonds; football: darrell green retired at 42 a few years back, morten andersen is ~46 and still kicking field goals), seeing Dara make TWO successful comebacks at her "advanced" age should be very humbling and enlightening to these kids.
So what if they can't make the cut in 2008. Provided Dara makes it, there are 5 more Games a 20-year-old "kid" has a shot at based on Dara's experience (we know at least 4). Or if they're really desparate for immediate results, they can move to Qatar.
Speaking of "kid"- my God, she just had one!!!!
That's what I think is amazing. She seemed to not miss a step in her training... that's impressive. If she makes it, she's the fastest, she goes. End of story. I see age in our society as not being much of an "excuse" anymore. It's about hard work and talent, at any age, in my opinion.
We, mere mortals (me, I'll speak for me) have really struggled balancing: family, work, and swimming. All hail Dara :notworthy:
Curious if this has had any positive effect on her perfomances? I'm just kind of hypothesising...
Besides a temporary condition perhaps related to added boyancy? I'll bet any temporary condition has disappeared...
Once Dara retired the last time, she signed a retirement form in essence. If a swimmer decides to un-retire, they must notify FINA and USA swimming about their intentions to try to compete at the elite level again. Once this has happened, they are put back on the drug testing list. Before they can compete in swim meets for their respective federations, they must go through a nine month waiting period.
Her 9 month period will be up sometime this summer or early fall. The rule requiring her to wait only applies to USA swimming not masters swimming. That is why she hasn't been in any USA meets. I actually met her masters coach in Coral Springs in Dec. He said once the waiting period is over, she will be in USA meets.
Interesting. So what happens if Dara sets an American Record in say, the 50 free, while she is still in the 9 month waiting period?
