Dara Torres-Amazing

Some of the arguments here are pretty comical. A couple interesting facts. 5/26/2006 at the age of 19 Jessica hardy swam 26.97, the first time under 27 seconds in her career that I could find on usa swimming. All swims prior to this were 27's and 28's. From that swim, she makes dramatic improvements from 26.97 all the way to 24.48 in the olympic trials at age 21 (where she test positive for a banned substance). Nearly a 2.5 second drop. That is going from not even being an olympic trials qualifier to world class in a pretty short time. And the substance she tested positive for is known for its ability to clear the body quickly and has benefits for sprinters. Anything is possible, tainted meat or supplements, fellow team mate spiking her water bottle, or even a dirty coach. But how likely are those scenarios? On a side note, is being tested 3 times at the trials normal? Are all of the olympic qualifiers tested after each race? Could she have thought she was in the clear after the first test? You've really made some very good points here. Has anyone here ever heard of Ockham's Razor - I love it... it says all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one. From all we have heard up to this point, it does sound like she has cheated. For a bit, I really didn't want to believe that Hardy is cheating... I found myself leaning towards the conspiracy theories because I didn't want to accept that there is cheating in our sport, but the above information really sounds very reasonable. The positive in the middle of two negatives does look like she may have thought she wasn't going to get tested again at Trials and "juiced" herself up again for the rest of the meet. Being tested 3 times at OT does sound like a lot to me, but I've never been involved in a meet like that or even know anybody who has. I absolutely hate that this has happened... I can only imagine what it's like for all the US swimmers (and families) that have been impacted by this.

Some of the arguments here are pretty comical. A couple interesting facts. 5/26/2006 at the age of 19 Jessica hardy swam 26.97, the first time under 27 seconds in her career that I could find on usa swimming. All swims prior to this were 27's and 28's. From that swim, she makes dramatic improvements from 26.97 all the way to 24.48 in the olympic trials at age 21 (where she test positive for a banned substance). Nearly a 2.5 second drop. That is going from not even being an olympic trials qualifier to world class in a pretty short time. And the substance she tested positive for is known for its ability to clear the body quickly and has benefits for sprinters. Anything is possible, tainted meat or supplements, fellow team mate spiking her water bottle, or even a dirty coach. But how likely are those scenarios? On a side note, is being tested 3 times at the trials normal? Are all of the olympic qualifiers tested after each race? Could she have thought she was in the clear after the first test? You've really made some very good points here. Has anyone here ever heard of Ockham's Razor - I love it... it says all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one. From all we have heard up to this point, it does sound like she has cheated. For a bit, I really didn't want to believe that Hardy is cheating... I found myself leaning towards the conspiracy theories because I didn't want to accept that there is cheating in our sport, but the above information really sounds very reasonable. The positive in the middle of two negatives does look like she may have thought she wasn't going to get tested again at Trials and "juiced" herself up again for the rest of the meet. Being tested 3 times at OT does sound like a lot to me, but I've never been involved in a meet like that or even know anybody who has. I absolutely hate that this has happened... I can only imagine what it's like for all the US swimmers (and families) that have been impacted by this.