Dara Torres-Amazing

I sure hope none of you will think I am juiced when I do my life time best 50 at Gresham.

Gull I have been disappointed also. I stuck with our fastest runner in the world Ben J even after he was first caught and believed his story he did not use annabolic steroids and that one of the other athletes had slipped something in his drink. But when caught the last time, I had to believe proof positive he was a user. I will still believe in Dara until proof positive as I believe in Phelps being clean.

McGwire wasn't tested was he? Baseball turned a blind eye to this for years. Now it is catching up......... How many times does she need to be tested to clear her name? Maybe I am just an eternal optimist....but until there is proof, she is and will be a hero to look up to!

Sorry that you cannot believe in a success story and have to look onto the darker side. A few years back I believed in a success story by the name of Mark McGwire whose pursuit of the home run record captured the nation's attention. I believed in success stories named Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, and Roger Clemens. You'll have to forgive me if I can no longer suspend my disbelief and embrace every success story in sport without question.

Another doubter...... sports.espn.go.com/.../story Is Torres' unprecedented feat too good to be true? By Pat Forde ESPN.com (Archive) Updated: July 5, 2008, 10:58 PM ET Comment Email Print OMAHA, Neb. -- I want to believe in Supermom. I want to believe Dara Torres, at age 41, has become a faster swimmer than she was in her teens, 20s and 30s with no strings attached. I want to believe she has rocketed out of a six-year retirement, bounced back from childbirth, overcome two surgeries in the past eight months and become the best American female sprinter -- again -- through nothing more than hard work and sensational talent. I want to believe 40-somethings everywhere have an all-natural inspiration for doing what they thought they were too old to do.

How can anyone not believe that anyone cannot succeed unless they are a druggy. I guess we live in a world of none belivers. Sorry that you cannot not belive in a success story and have to look onto the darker side. All I am saying is before I will believe I need proof positive. In Canada we just payed $6,500,000 dollars to Steven Truscott wrongfully committed for murder 47 years ago. The cops gave him LSD to try and get him to confess www.cbc.ca/.../ How can anyone still so readily and without question accept unbelievable accomplishments in sport as legitimate and untainted? GHJ and Neil Walker are pretty good swimmers, too.

I want to believe she is coming by her talents honestly. Certainly there is no evidence to the contrary, and as tjburk points out, she's invited testing. But even I have to admit after watching her finals that her wins seemed almost "unnatural". Perhaps she is an anomaly or perhaps her training/support is the new frontier. If others adopt her training methods, perhaps we'll see more of this kind of thing. I hope so. In the meantime, I will sit back and watch both with amazement and unease.

Oh, I don't know.....maybe because there is not an iota, not even a hint that she is doing anything illegal......she is holding her arms out and letting them test her any time they want.....

Gull...you know and I know she is a pretty good swimmer. Why does everyone try to pin something on someone without proof positive? How can anyone still so readily and without question accept unbelievable accomplishments in sport as legitimate and untainted? GHJ and Neil Walker are pretty good swimmers, too.

I can't keep track. I thought in the last Dara interview I read or saw (maybe the NYT article), she said she does 5000 meters a day 5x a week. I have no idea how much college sprinters train, really. Tall Paul? Ande? Unfortunately, there aren't many NCAA kids in the finals. As someone noted on the other thread, almost none of the NCAA Champs are on the Olympic team (except maybe Stoval?). They're being outdone by the pros. Do you really think the swimmers in the finals or semi-finals of the 50 free are high yardage swimmers? There are many NCAA kids, or very recent NCAA kids in the finals or semis. Wildman-Tobriner was a top sprinter for Stanford and swam a 18.98 50 SCY free in 2007. Weber-Gale was a top Texas sprinter through 2007. Christine Magnuson was the NCAA champ in 100 fly. Burckle, Soni, Chandler, Nymeyer, etc. are also current NCAA champions. Breeden was a NCAA medalist. Vollmer, etc. The semis in particular are full of Auburn, Stanford, Arizona, and Texas swimmers. I have seen a few of Eddie Reese's workouts and I don't think anyone swam just 5000 yds in season. According to the recent NY Times article Dara trains about 25,000 yds/wk - so I was low in my post above. It also says she trained 65K/week in college. I was guessing that current NCAA sprinters still train about that much - but the sets may be different than they were 20 years ago. Other articles on Dara say her training will cost $100K this year. I wonder if Dara's flexibility is a key to the way she finishes her races so strongly - the natural tightening that occurs for many at the end of a race may be less significant for her? Can she hold her near perfect stroke all the way to the end - maintaining efficiency where others fall apart?