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DARA TORRES
WORLD-RECORD SETTING OLYMPIC SWIMMER
Since her first international race at the age of 14, Dara Torres has proven that she is far from your average athlete. While attending the University of Florida, Dara earned the maximum possible number of 28 NCAA All-American swimming awards. As the first US swimmer to compete in four Olympic Games, Dara set three World records and won nine Olympic medals, including four gold. In the Sydney Olympic Games alone, after a seven-year break from competitive swimming, Dara won gold in the 400m freestyle and 400m MR and bronze in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, and the 100m butterfly. Following the 2000 Olympics, Dara retired to start a family, but dove right back into swimming and in the 2006 Masters Nationals, just three weeks after her daughter’s birth, she broke a world record. In August 2007, Dara won another National title and broke her own 7-year American Record in the 50 Freestyle. And in July 2008 Dara crushed her record yet again at the Olympic trials in Omaha where she secured her spot on the Olympic team to compete in Beijing. Outside of swimming, Dara has made a name for herself as a TV commentator and a print model and was the first athlete to appear in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in 1994. She was a feature correspondent for Good Morning America, worked on-air for ESPN, TNT and Fox News Channel including stints on NHL Cool Shots and Fox Sports Sunday.
The Future:
Torres is making her comeback and training hard to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games. Six-time Olympic coach Michael Lohberg described Torres’s drive as “just amazing”, “To make a run at the Olympics for a 40-year-old mother seems totally out of the question …. But Dara is not measured by normal standards. She is truly an exception, defying several laws of life.” (Swimnews.com)
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DARA’S INFO
PROGRAMS/TOPICS
- Women’s Issues
- Women’s Empowerment
- Never Give up your Dream
- You’re NOT too old to chase your dream
- the Olympic Expeerience