Dara Torres-Amazing

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

Geochuck, Go ahead an juice. Gull and I give you permission. John Smith

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. The one big (and it's a very big difference) between the persons mentioned and Dara, is she has gone way way beyond the norm in asking to be tested and be as up front as humanly possible. What else would you ask her to do? She is either clean or she has a close relationship with the very best mad scientist in the land...

Could be a paradigm shift in training, but if so few would have the resources that she does to hire the support staff this method seems to require. For the sake of argument, look at GHJ and Neil Walker. Both are world class sprinters in their 30's, neither of whom have ever retired from the sport. They train in different programs (The Race Club and Longhorn Aquatics). Neither made the Olympic team. And neither swam personal bests or set new ARs at the trials. I believe it is more like that she is 1) an anomaly, or 2) juiced. The fact that others may not have her resources does not negate the fact that she may be on to something. Many people don't have the resources for various medical proceedures, but we do need to know about them. Furthermore, if (a big "if") she is really on to something, then it would behoove USA Swimming to try to find the resources to implement this for the elite swimmers - certainly, if we didn't do it, another country would. The fact that others didn't take time off may actually be against them, e.g. wear and tear, fatigue - both psychological and physical. Also, keep in mind that various studies have shown that pregnancy can have a positive athletic effect - GHJ, et al don't qualify there. I believe: 1) Dara Torres is a statistical outlier WRT her ability. 2) She may be a bit OCD/narcisistic (sp?), but that's usually somewhere in the elite mix. 3) She is training a number of years ahead of her competition OR, even if she doesn't know anything more than the current state-of-the-art, she is implementing it all. 4) Yes, she has money. On the way to work this AM, I heard the head of the USADA state that she'd have to be insane to submit to the amount of testing that she has, especially since they can freeze it and retest later. I also note that no one has ever associted her with any known drug conduits. I realize that this means little, but keep in mind that most of the people who have tested positive have had that taint. Until someone comes up with an argument other than "no one can do it" , "no one else can do it" or "it's never been done before", I see little reason to denigrate her accomplishment - being wary of it is fine, but bashing her on the basis of the above is pointless. -LBJ