Cover girl, swimmer, mother, icon to a fast-graying, 40-something set and proud owner of abs that make Brandi Chastain's look, well, practically ordinary.
All labels firmly fixed to Dara Torres. Well, the last one really isn't a label but think about how Chastain, an icon in her own right, looked so chiseled when she whipped off her shirt after the Women's World Cup in 1999 and now seeing Torres on the pool deck has everyone searching for new descriptions.
But what about just one more?
Olympic gold medalist at age 41?
Her medal chances in Beijing are almost lost in the sound and furor regarding her remarkable improvements at an age when most folks' fast-twitch muscles are barely twitching, let alone fast. Torres fielded more questions about drug testing and suspicion about her jaw-dropping results at a recent media gathering at Stanford University than ones about her opponents.
An open-book philosophy -- a willingness to be drug-tested anywhere at any time -- hasn't prevented it from becoming open season on Torres. She is among the most accessible of athletes, either via telephone or e-mail, and said she understood the current climate in a post-BALCO, post-Marion Jones era.
To a point.
"I totally understand," she said. "But if you explain it to people and you're out there, letting them do whatever test possible to prove you're clean that other athletes have not done, you should be given the benefit of the doubt."
Finally, there were questions about the competition.
Oh, that.
Gary Hall Jr., two-time defending Olympic champion in the 50-meter freestyle, thinks Torres has a legitimate shot of climbing to the top of the medal podium in that event despite the fact her most-recent Olympic appearance was in 2000. Hall, who just fell short in his attempt for a fourth Olympic team, is familiar with these well-spaced comebacks.
"Dara Torres can win it," he said in a telephone interview. "She doesn't have to get that much faster. Everyone knows how tough Dara Torres is mentally."
The world record-holder is Libby Lenton Trickett, who went 23.97 seconds in March in Sydney at the Australian Olympic trials, taking 0.12 off the existing mark. The third-fastest time in the world (24.13, at Santa Clara in May) this year belongs to the teenager Cate Campbell, who was born the year Torres competed in her third Olympics, in 1992.
Between those two Aussies is veteran Marleen Veldhuis of the Netherlands at 24.09.
