Dara Torres

(1967- )

Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American swimmer. She is the first swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympics: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008. She competed in the Beijing Olympic Games in the 50 meter freestyle, 4 x 100 medley relay, and 4 x 100 freestyle relay, winning the silver medal in all three events.

Previously, she has won nine Olympic medals, including four golds, and won five medals alone in Sydney in 2000, the Games in which she was the eldest member on the team (33 years old). On August 1st, 2007 at the age of 40 (just 15 months after giving birth to her first child), she won gold in the 100 meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, her 14th win at these events. She then followed that up on August 4th by twice breaking her own American record in the 50 m freestyle, 26 years after she first set the American record at just 15 years old.

Torres attended the Westlake School for Girls (now Harvard-Westlake School), located in Beverly Hills/ North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, and swam under coach Darlene Bible, where she set CIF records that remain to this day.

Torres is featured in the book Gold in the Water by P.H. Mullen, which describes her comeback for the 2000 Olympics under coaches Richard Quick and Dick Jochums. She broke the World Record in the women’s 50 m freestyle three times during the early 1980s.

She subsequently attended the University of Florida, where she received 28 All-American honors.

Torres has worked on television as a reporter and announcer for American networks such as NBC, ESPN, TNT, OLN and Fox News Channel. She now hosts the golf show the Clubhouse on the Resort Sports Network. She is also a sometime model, having appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1994.

At age 41, Dara Torres returned to the pool to obtain a spot in her fifth Olympic games, unprecedented for an American female swimmer. She won the 100 m freestyle in a time of 53.78 seconds. The American record in that event is 53.39 seconds. Her Olympic career now spans 24 years. On July 5th, she qualified for the finals on 50 m freestyle to be held on July 6th. In that semi-final she broke the American record with a time of 24.38 seconds. On July 6th in the finals she broke that record for the 9th time, setting it at 24.25 seconds and winning the top American women’s spot in the 50 m freestyle. She will be going to Beijing for the Olympic games in August 2008. Torres’ time of 24.25 is .28 seconds off the current world’s best in the 50m, set by Australian Libby Trickett at the Australian Olympic Trials in March 2008.

Her father, Edward Torres, was Jewish, and Torres herself converted to Judaism before marrying her second husband. In 2005, she was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.