Dara Torres-Amazing

Thus far, in this thread, no one has yet to name a single athlete that has done or is doing what she is either doing or may be about to do, not a single one. How about Paul Tergat?

The statistical probability of this is virtually impossible without drugs.You’ve obviously done the math here, so hopefully you can help us out… If it is statistically impossible at age 40 to be a clean elite swimmer, then what is the age does this statistically impossibility occur? Could a 30 year old swimmer be elite? How about 31? Do I hear 33? Where exactly is the statistical tipping point? Also, is it beyond the realm of possibility that a number of elite athletes are using “legal” performance enhancing drugs and supplements? With legal being defined as not banned by WADA. Supplements such as creatine, Muscle Milk, Gatorade, flax seed, fish oil, vitamin E, soda, amino acid… Is using legal supplements cheating? And where are the grey areas within “legal”? For example I personally believe that creatine should be banned and that anyone who has used it has cheated, but I believe that for example fish oil shouldn’t be banned and people who use it to enhance performance aren’t cheating. Should all the creatine users/abusers be vilified as cheaters for using a performance enhancing drug? Maybe, but I hope not, since after all it is legal.

Geek - you are correct I do not think we can compare Dara to any other athletes. Ooh, we had another poster who had this exact same sentiment, but his name is banned forever. Good company to keep.

Geek - you are correct I do not think we can compare Dara to any other athletes. Jenny Thompson perhaps. Jenny came back after a few years off to swim darn fast. She was ONLY in her early 30s though.

The sad thing about being unprofessionally consumed by swimming is that I don't have time for my fantasy baseball league anymore. It's really put me out ... I'm off now to partake in the joys of MF-ing and sprinting. Carry on the bickerfest.

It's good to see you have balanced that bizarre affection for Valentine's poetry with good ole fashioned baseball stats, still the best game going, despite hop head Barry.

not me, I'd need to be much faster. Dara is probably faster than me I'd be thrilled to go 54.4 in the 100 free how do you quantify how great a baseball player is Base ball players don't have to drag their bodies through the water Ande Well, in Ryan's and Clemen's cases, they were winning Cy Youngs at 40 based on amazing won-loss records and low ERAs, which is pretty damn impressive. Seemingly at least somewhat comparable in deed to winning the 100 free at Nats.

not me, I'd need to be much faster. Dara is probably faster than me I'd be thrilled to go 54.4 in the 100 free how do you quantify how great a baseball player is Base ball players don't have to drag their bodies through the water Ande Fair enough. Then who do we compare her against? Ourselves? Hypothetical unknowns? Geek? Ande? Nolan Ryan was amazing! I think he was 42 when he retired. He got better with age, more control.

BTW - it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to pump up those super skinny tires. That's because our mental abilities, like our physical abilities, decline with age.

This is the best row we've had since watching Stud's backstroke starts and turns on youtube.com. Back to the program. OK, so queen says we can't compare to other ultra elite athletes who've attempted a comeback at the same age. We also can't compare to other athletes in general because they represent a tiny group in a huge population. That leaves us to compare to humanity as a whole. That's invalid because most folks don't have what it takes to train, dedicate, etc to a lifestyle that gets you to the elite level. Even if they do, 99.99% of those that try won't get to the elite level. So, this brings you back to the obvious comparison to other elite athletes, the only logical pool by which to compare. BTW - it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to pump up those super skinny tires.