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.
So why aren't more 40 somethings having the same success? Improved technique, better suits, and better training are not things that are hard to come by for determined swimmers. I am not saying she is juicing, but I will say that it seems odd.
I bet there are some 40 year olds setting personal bests, the difference is none of them are multi-time Olympians! I admit it's an amazing accomplishment, but Dara has shown the ability to swim fast at every stage of her career since she first came onto the scene as a teenager.
So why aren't more 40 somethings having the same success? Improved technique, better suits, and better training are not things that are hard to come by for determined swimmers. I am not saying she is juicing, but I will say that it seems odd.
I bet there are some 40 year olds setting personal bests, the difference is none of them are multi-time Olympians! I admit it's an amazing accomplishment, but Dara has shown the ability to swim fast at every stage of her career since she first came onto the scene as a teenager.
