Dara Torres-Amazing

Hi Syd I'm not privy to any inside information just expressing my PERSONAL OPINION. Hi George What Darra is doing is more than just doing well, also I didn't say she WAS a cheater, I just expressed my doubts.

As to muscle structure. The more you swim the better the muscle structure. No bulging muscles but long smooth and strong. At 18 my chest measurement was 44" At 30 it was 50" At 31 I finished the season with a 50" chest measurement and was very skinny weighing in at 182. I ate some bad fish in Egypt and lost weight at the end of the season. At 35 when I was in my best swimming condition it was 52". Lots of muscle and my weight was around 230lbs all season.

Here's the deal....we live in a world where cheating is an almost accepted practice; speeding, lying on resumes, etc. etc. etc. And the fact is...whether you want to put your head in the sand and ignore it...cheating in sports on all levels is rampant and growing. Having said that...I don't know if Dara is using drugs but given the magnitude of what she has done (put it in persepctive, this isn't a masters swimmer doing a best time, this is a 3x Olympian breaking the AR at 41 a little over a year after giving birth...imagine Nolan Ryan throwing faster in his 40's than his 20's like the Washington Post article just wrote about this), take into account her relationship with Richard Quick and ties to Balco in 2000, putting on 20lbs+ of muscle in 6 months, etc. etc. All of the above REQUIRES us to look closely and question...not accuse....but really question. So what is it, precisely, that you are looking closely at?

Syd any one who does well is a cheater in some of these guys minds. I believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Then many are proven guilty by false evidence. So I prefer to only believe guilt if a person pleads guilty. Many of the drug tests can give us false information. An after thought how much money is made by these drug testing organizations or is it a free source.

5{!apprentice;114635] Personally I have my doubts. Why? I don't understand. Are you privy to something we aren't? Aren't people innocent until proven guilty? Please explain. Syd

Personally, I don't think a "personal opinion" requires evidentiary substantiation. This is a public forum where everyone expresses their personal opinions all the time. Someone could have "doubts" based solely on the uniqueness of the achievement and the seemingly universal practice of "cheating" in many sports. Not necessarily tantamount to "insinuation." That view's as equally valid as someone believing Torres is just phenomenally talented and employs superior and novel training tactics. If you're talking "personal opinion." When it comes to meets and competing, all that matters is postitive tests.

Dara is getting knocked from preforming great times at her age. There are people doubting she is clean. Does anyone accuse someone like Rich Abrams? No, we say he is in great shape and a super talent? Why can't it be that simple for Dara? If people paid attention to her over the years, they would see that she has kept her body in AWESOME CONDITION! She hasn't been one of these couch potato,weekend warriors. She has stayed very,very fit over the years. The worst part of any accusation about her..it's coming mainly from fellow Americans. Yet, we(same fellow Americans) rip to shreds anyone...anyone that says Lance Armstrong used drugs during his run. We calm that he is a super athlete...and worked hard for his wins. Here's the deal....we live in a world where cheating is an almost accepted practice; speeding, lying on resumes, etc. etc. etc. And the fact is...whether you want to put your head in the sand and ignore it...cheating in sports on all levels is rampant and growing. Having said that...I don't know if Dara is using drugs but given the magnitude of what she has done (put it in persepctive, this isn't a masters swimmer doing a best time, this is a 3x Olympian breaking the AR at 41 a little over a year after giving birth...imagine Nolan Ryan throwing faster in his 40's than his 20's like the Washington Post article just wrote about this), take into account her relationship with Richard Quick and ties to Balco in 2000, putting on 20lbs+ of muscle in 6 months, etc. etc. All of the above REQUIRES us to look closely and question...not accuse....but really question.

5{!apprentice;114635]that article even said that she has her blood drawn monthly as per HER own request to fight off the vicious rumors with a more comprehensive drug screen than a simple urine sample. Talk about sticking it to them. Another olympic medal swimmer who was very voiceferous in her rejection of doping, claimed to be the most tested swimmer in the world at one point, volunteered blood for testing and even campaigned for blood tests be mandatory for top athletes was Michelle Smith. If Darra is doing this clean then it is amazing and an example to us all of what can be achieved despite age. Personally I have my doubts.

If she was "muscling" her freestyle I think you would see it. Her stroke is so efficient, fluid and flawless. Put reasonable strength into the equation and wala. Strength can be maintained and sometimes peaked in athletes at late 30's. Well, that's probably a big part of it isn't it? Technique is huge in swimming, so maybe she was physically capable of even faster times when she was young and just didn't have quite good enough technique to take advantage of it at the time. Using a much less illustrious example (moi), I was in exceptionally good shape in my 20's from running, cycling, cross-country skiing and weight training, but could barely swim 2 lengths of a 25 meter pool. Now I'm old and fat and not in anywhere near such good condition, but can easily swim a mile or more all at once and can occasionally pass much younger and fitter looking people (I don't know who is more surprised, them or me). In any other aerobic sport this would look like an impossible transformation, but I know it's because I've spent hours and hours trying to improve my technique.

It's easy and tempting to be cynical here. So many athletic breakthroughs lately are chemically enhanced. However, in every era there are athletes whose performance changes the fundamentals of a sport: - Bruce Sutter in baseball (so-so righty invents split finger fastball and makes Hall of Fame) - *** Fosbury (first to high-jump with back to the bar. Now everyone does.) Could Dara be one of these? If so, it would have to be her training. This is emphasized in all of the articles I've seen. She swims less, does more weightlifiing. She spends a disproportionate amount of time stretching and working on balance - two skills that deteriorate with age. It sort of makes sense - by 40, an elite swimmer will have pretty much maximized what they can do with technique. Things like balance and flexibility will be keys to improvement. I don't want to sound like a Pollyanna, but it is a possibility. If so, it can be repeated, just like Sutter and Fosbury. There will be a lot of imitators. In 10 years, you would see a lot of Daras. Not saying it will happen, but if it does, it would be evidence she's legit. If it doesn't . . .