Swimming Special Report: Olympic Gold Medallist Dara Torres (Part 1)
American International swimmer and Olympic gold medallist, Dara Grace Torres was born on the 15th of April 1967. Being the only American swimmer to have participated in five Olympic Games that included those of 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008,
she is known as one of the best swimmers of all time. Moreover, she is also the oldest athlete who qualified for the American swim squad for the Summer Olympics 2008. The 41 year old, butterfly and freestyle specialist participated in the 50 metre freestyle,
4 into 100 metre medley relay and 4 into 100 metre freestyle relay events. She returned home with three silver medals in all the aforementioned meets.
Torres is the winner of 12 Olympic medals which include 4 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals. Five of these medals were won by her at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She was 33 when she participated in these Olympics and thus was the oldest swimmer on the American
swim team. The great Olympian did not conclude any Olympics Games contended by her without a medal.
At the age of 40, on the 1st of August 2007, she went on to win a gold medal in the 100 metre freestyle event at the US National that was held in Indianapolis. This was the fourteenth national champion that Torres participated in, and that too
15 months after giving birth to her first child. At the same championships, Torres then broke her own American record in the 50 metre freestyle event which was marked by her at the age of 15.
The great Olympic champion is the daughter of Edward Torres and Marylu Kauder and was born in Jupiter, Florida. She started swimming at the age of 7, following her brothers in the sport when they used to swim at Y.M.C.A. She then joined the Culver City swim
team.
Later when she joined the Westlake School, she started swimming for the Westlake swim team. Her trainer was Darlene Bible. Torres set California Interscholastic Federation record while still in the Westlake team. These records are still intact to date. She
then went on to swim for Mission Viejo Madadores in California, now under the training of Coach Mark Shubert. She joined this team in the 1980s while still a teenager.
The athletic beauty then earned the athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville. While she was studying at this prestigious institution, she became a member of the Florida Gators swimming and diving team in National Collegiate
Athletic Association. Torres then came under the training of Randy Reese from the years 1985 to 1989. As a Gator swimmer, Torres dominated nine South-eastern Conference and NCAA championships that included the 400 metre freestyle relay (1986), the 50 metre
freestyle, 100 metre freestyle, 100 metre butterfly, while 200 metre medley relay in 1989. Torres was also named the SEC athlete of the Year 1988 in Florida. The legendary swimmer also has the honour to have the maximum possible number of titles that a swimmer
can win during his her or her college career.
The great swimmer graduated from the University of Florida in 1990, after she completed her degree in Telecommunications. Torres was then inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999 as a “Gator Great”.
Torres possesses a very versatile personality which goes beyond sports and swimming. She has been a news anchor and reporter for many TV networks in America which include NBC, ESPN, TNT, OLN and Fox News Channel.
She was then hired by Team Invigorate in 2009, an advertising campaign that worked towards inspiring people to live younger for longer. In the same year, her inspirational memoir Age is Just a Number was published, while her Gold Medal Fitness, also written
by her was published in May 2010.
Moreover, she is also a celebrity athlete for a charitable organization known as Swim Across America.
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