Dara Gets it Done! Torres advances to 50 Meter Freestyle Finals

I’ve backed off writing about the Olympic trials lately for a couple of reasons. One, there’s just so darn many of them. So many elite athletes, so many heartfelt backstories, so many interesting and exciting events with so many associated stats, but the second reason I backed off is more legal than lackadaisical. Copyright.

That’s (copy) right. The picture included here is a stock photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, God bless ’em, anyway, but the pictures and videos of the current Olympic trials are locked up in ESPN and NBC sports coverage vaults everywhere, and I’m frankly not writing the caliber of sports coverage that merits the money shot. Or the legal trouble.

But I’m wading back in today to cover the highlights of the two 50 meter races in which Dara Torres swam last night. (2 of 3 needed to move on to the Olympics) How could I not? The woman might be uncomfortably close to my own age at 45, but she’s as likeable as they come, brimming with youthful vitality and optimism that defies the calendar affecting the rest of us. Maybe that’s her charm, though. She makes it okay to be in your forties . More than okay, she makes it cool.

Dara isn’t just the oldest athlete to ever compete in the Olympic trials or Games. She’s medaled in every one of the five Olympiads in which she’s taken part, and earned an even dozen medals: 4 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze over the course of 24 years.

Dara credits her love of the sport for her longevity, narrowing her field of focus to just one event, as well as her rigorous training and recovery regimen. She’s even had a  $5000.- replica of the start block from which swimmers push-off into the pool at such competitions installed at her training facility, but no amount of practice can replicate the stadium packed with fans and TV cameras, the alarming honk of the start buzzer, and “this is it” nerves.

Or can it? With the encouraging presence of Mom Mary Lou and 6-year-old daughter Tessa cheering from the stands, Dara was quick off the start block in Heat #16, her first race, lunging into the water at lane #3 in a reaction time of .72 seconds, just a couple hundredths of a second behind the fastest reaction time, and despite numerous knee surgeries that could impair the hamstring force required to insure such a fast start. Impressive, when you consider the age of swimmer Simone Manuel in lane #0 is thirty years less than Dara’s. A full thirty years, chickens, making Dara no spring one of us.

Even so, favorite Jessica Hardy taps the wall first, coming in 24.56, (WR: 23.73; AR: 24.07) but Dara’s right behind her at 24.80 and taps in right after Christine Magnuson at 24.72. This earns Dara a spot in the semi-finals to be staged a little later on in the program, but there’s no time delay here at CHARRON’s CHATTER. Let’s get right to them.

Heat #2 finds Dara in the same lane, and this time, she’s even with Hardy off the start blocks. Despite her powerful movement through the water, Hardy still comes in before darling Dara, but only just. Hardy finishes at 24.55, and Dara at 25 flat, good enough to earn third place overall, as well as the right to advance to tonight’s final. The pudding wherein all proof lies.

You can bet I’ll be glued to the set.

Read one Londoner’s take on the pending Games here: …MY ADVICE TO AN OLYMPIC TOURIST