VivirLatino

Latina swimmer deals with doping accusations

11:37 H | Topics: Sports

Hello VivirLatino! This is my first post in what I hope will be a long line of posts at VL! Thanks so much to La Mala and Jennifer for welcoming me so warmly!~La Macha

Seems like Latina swimmer and five time Olympian Dara Torres can't catch a break with the rumor mongers. After her recent wins at the U.S. Olympic swim trials, the 41-year-old mother of one is facing down grumbling from the side lines that such a feat is "unbelievable" in the Barry Bonds sense rather than the Virgin Maria sense.

Torres is not only swimming faster than her younger self, she's also swimming faster than her younger peers, today's elite swimmers. She easily beat Natalie Coughlin in the 100 meters Friday, a race she has since dropped to concentrate on the 50 meters in Beijing.

Eight years ago, Torres had a staff of 10 traveling with her at all times. Eight years later, she has just as big an entourage and is a lot faster. Other elite swimmers also have highly tuned training regimens. They also are wearing the magic LZR swimsuit, which is supposed to shave off tenths-of-seconds, not turn back time.

Good thing there are some who support Torres:

Though Dara can not prove she's clean, she is doing the very best next thing. She is one of a dozen volunteers - along with Michael Phelps and others - in a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency program, launched this spring, that collects blood and urine samples well beyond normal protocols.

I have said this before but at the risk of repetition say again: USADA can not afford for this program to fail.

Moreover, it's not just that Dara volunteered. It's how she volunteered.

She picked up the phone and asked to be tested.

My questions: Why are in shape 41-year-olds so unbelievable? What are all day work out schedules and a life time of sports participation supposed to do to a body?