How Dara Torres Does It

But many of the rest of us feel old after we hit 40. Why? 
Part of that is just we're sitting on our bottoms. People who go to the Olympics are extraordinary examples of the human species. They can do things that the rest of us can hardly dream of doing. You don't lose that. Whatever it is that makes that, it's very clear that the very highest level of athletes, you have to have talent to begin with. There's a lot of people who've trained it very hard, and the talent ain't there. She obviously has both.

Is swimming easier on the body than other sports?
Swimming, there's an enormous amount of repetitive injury. You're not landing like you are as a jogger. But by the same token, they're training so hard. I believe she just had shoulder surgery. The butterfly, which was a good stroke for her, she says, "I can't do it anymore because my shoulder still hurts, but I can still do the freestyle."

Are injuries are a bigger deal than her age?
Yes. She just managed to work around that.

In the old Soviet days, there were reports of swimmers who were forced to get pregnant and then abort because the theory was that pregnancy hormones made them stronger. Could pregnancy actually make women physically stronger?
There was not the documentation for that. The pregnancy thing, that's more of an urban legend. When you think about swimming, you think of it as a fitness sport for you and me. But at the level they're competing, it's as much of a skill sport, being able to get hold of the water and pull it is a remarkable skill. A lot of their practice is to get a feel for the water. Now you've got a person, a woman who's another two or three years older because she has a kid, that skill is still there. I don't think pregnancy has anything to do with it. It's a matter that you've had more time in your life to practice.

So practice makes perfect in a skill sport?
Yes. And you're more mature. You see the same thing in track and field. A lot of female athletes come back after they have kids. You lead a more focused lifestyle. You don't waste energy.

Torres has never tested positive and is part of an in-depth testing program. But with many elite athletes, performance-enhancing drugs are a factor, right? 
They're a fact of life. They're out there. Our culture has become very cynical about it. Do you presume that people are guilty before they're convicted? That's a very bad thing that's happened in society. The man in the street—and I guess that includes most reporters—says the only way you could do this is she must be dirty. Again, she's very talented, she probably leads a very organized lifestyle. You've got to have extraordinary talent, be very organized about training and lifestyle, and avoid injuries. You have to have all of them together. If you do, then you can get results.

Is there anything athletes can take that would not show up on tests?
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is as good as it gets. They're at the edge of the curve. It's impossible to ever prove that somebody is innocent. By the same token, it's impossible to do more than Torres is doing. This person is fully participating in all the drug-testing programs; she's in an accelerated protocol. They're doing that to try to make things even better. The athletes are under notice 24-7, 365. At any moment of the day, you can get a knock on your door. You think about your own lifestyle, any moment of any day, someone can come knocking on the door saying I need you to provide a sample for me. If you're going to be an elite athlete under the USADA protocol, you must participate. The standard protocol is primarily urine testing. She's doing blood testing. She's doing what is as close to the ideal protocol as we have today.

She is a great role model for us all?
Yeah. The problem is that culturally we're just cynical right now. Maybe we shouldn't be. These are unique humans, regardless of your sport. They're doing things that the rest of us can't perceive of doing. It's like Pablo Picasso. He could put things on canvas that a lot of artists just can't do. Look at Mozart. That's the same thing that happens at the Olympics, you've got extraordinary athletes who've dedicated their lives to doing extraordinary things.