USA TODAY – INDIANAPOLIS — In last year’s Olympics, a lot of 20-somethings got beat by a 41-year-old woman in the 50-meter freestyle.
In the U.S. championships Thursday, they got humbled again. This time by a 42-year-old woman with arthritis.
In the 24.43 seconds it took her to cross the pool for the 50 freestyle final, Dara Torres again blew out of the water some age-old assumptions about age, creaky knee and all. And her reaction showed she still is much more a serious competitor than an intriguing sideshow.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to be out here and still racing,” she said, “but that time won’t medal at the world championships.”
Worlds begin July 26 in Rome. Torres might swim a relay in addition to the 50 freestyle, but that is yet to be determined.
Torres won the 50 freestyle silver in the Beijing Olympics, missing out on what would have been her first individual Olympic gold (she has four from relays) by one-hundredth of a second. She declared afterward that she was done, that she was going to leave the lanes to the younger set.
Within weeks, she was rethinking that. She called national team coach Mark Schubert to get his opinion.
“I just told her to never say never because she’s just improved so much,” Schubert said. “There’s no reason to retire when you’re improving so much.”
First, her body needed some improvements. She had surgeries on her right shoulder, left thumb and left knee. She also had a schedule packed with speaking engagements, sponsor commitments and time with her 3-year-old daughter, Tessa.
Nevertheless, she returned to competition in March, winning the 50 freestyle at a meet in Austin in 24.91. In May, she set the U.S. record in the 50 butterfly, a non-Olympic event.
“Once I did that, I was like, ‘I’m OK.’ But it’s been tough,” she said.
Her left knee, which has arthritis and bone rubbing on bone, bothers her on starts and turns and while she’s kicking. She plans to have surgery on it again after this season.
“Once you dive in, the adrenaline goes and you don’t feel it,” she said. “So that’s a good thing, I guess.”
Out of the water, though, it has kept her from the lower-leg workouts she did while preparing for Beijing.
“It kind of messes with your head a little bit,” she said. “You know that you’re not at your peak form, but you just have to do what you can do and not worry about it.”
Her victory Thursday gave her a 10th national title in the 50 freestyle. Her first came in 1982, four years before second-place finisher Amanda Weir was born.
Moments after she climbed out of the pool Thursday, she was asked over the loudspeaker system what toll competitive swimming at 42 is taking on her body.
She repeated a phrase that became her mantra in the Beijing run-up last year and the title of a book she released this year: “Age is just a number, right?”
The crowd, packed with 40-somethings, cheered loudly.
