Dara Torres-Amazing

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Geochuck - Actually I live near some of the best professional female triathletes in the country. Professional female triathletes are the epitomy of leaness and power combined. Many of these women have actually hit their best times well up into their 30s. Triathlons, however, are primarily endurance -oriented. Also, please note that there is a difference between toned abs and bulging ab muscles on women. I would bet your wife had the former. Also, I have to scold you a little. You are scolding folks about making assumptions about Dara. You made the assumption that I live in Philadelphia. You couldn't be further off. I live in the land where more women have won Miss America than any other part of the country. No need to attack just because I am skeptical of Dara.

But in doing so without that proof, you are just engaging in one of the more baser (and undesired) aspects of human behavoir. This is a discussion forum, we are discussing, nothing wrong with that. Thanks for the morality lesson.

Based upon what has been written in these threads, it seems the common belief is that endurance based events are more difficult to maintain elite performance levels in than sprint events. Or perhaps the PB times you are talking about are not elite level. Actually its just the opposite, reaction time, speed, power and fast twitch muscle is all the first to go...endurance can continue to be developed into the late 30's/early 40's but typically even there it is rare for an elite athlete to make incremental improvements in times. If you watched the trails and listened to some of Rowdy's commentary and read any of the other articles discussing this anomaly of an athlete they all said the same thing as well as pointed out how slow Dara was off the blocks

Based upon what has been written in these threads, it seems the common belief is that endurance based events are more difficult to maintain elite performance levels in than sprint events. Or perhaps the PB times you are talking about are not elite level. Check out the current top-ranked American female triathletes. Many are in their 30s. Also, the women that won the gold in the triathlon at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics were in their 30s. The woman that won in 2000 was 32 and had already given birth to a child. Barb Lindquist, ranked at one point as one of the world's best, peaked in her thirties. The current one to watch is Julie Swail. Well into her thirties. The cool thing about all these great triathletes is that their primary sport was swimming. These gals were notable college swimmers. Barb finaled at an Olympic Trials in 200 free.

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Paul, you should really heed the posting advice you gave me earlier in this thread. There seems to be a fundamental difference in the way you and I think. You call it, "burying my head in the sand," I prefer to call it simple optimism. Seriously, why watch sports if every time somebody does something unheard of, I jump to the conclusion that there is something underhanded going on? There is evidence against the cyclists we have been talking about (even if it is flimsy evidence in Armstrong's case), but so far, there is zero evidence to say that Torres is cheating. If there is some, I will be glad to admit I am wrong! I have yet to see evidence that any swimmers, that we look up to, are cheating. With the exception of the recent Chinese swimmer and the East Germans back in the day, I haven't heard of a single swimmer getting busted for drugs. Tracy & I wannafly...although all evidence from this forum may lead you to believe the opposite...I don't live my life as a sad, angry, hateful, skeptic...I'm actually quite an optimist. the fact that you had no knowledge of failed drug tests is evidence enough you are far away from this "world". But the fact is you base your beliefs simply on your "heart"...not from daily communication with athletes and coaches close to this stuff, not from your own personal experience getting to a fairly high level of training/racing (not masters) and seeing first hand what's its like to try and make these break thru's, seeing the physiological changes of athletes around you that have cheated up close and personal...bottom line is I'm hopeful but also a realist in that I think there is far more cheating going on in swimming than people want to accept and if we want a cleaner sport we need to scrutinize anomalies such as what Dara has achieved....notice I said scrutinize.

I have seen numerous attacks/accusations. Sorry, but those are not a realistic part of any discussion. Sorry, that's not for you to decide. While I don't agree with tjburk, I do enjoy the banter and am learning. You can't stifle that but thanks again for telling us how to behave.

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I lived in LA a few years ago. I used to love to go th the shopping mall. I saw more beautiful ladies with bare mid drifts, their abs that made Darra's abs look flabby. You must live in Philadelphia. Where the fat lady sings. It is plain to see you had never seen my wife Chuckie in a Bikini when she was 41 after having 6 kids. I saw a picture of Dara in the New York Times dated July 29, 2008. What bothers me is her abs. Has anybody seen a 41 year old MAN with that kind of definition? I've worked out with a number of professional female athletes under 30 that do not have that kind of definition. Believe me, they also do 90 minutes of core work a day. Can somebody find me a pic of a woman over 35 who has had a baby in the last 2.5 years that has abs like that? Can somebody find me a pic of a woman over 35 who has not had a baby that has abs like that? Something does not seem right.