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Dara Torres brings the fun back to the OlympicsThis weekend, 41-year-old Dara Torres became the oldest swimmer to win an Olympic silver medal (she missed out on the gold in the Women's 50m Freestyle by 1/100th of a second), ultimately departing China with three silver medals to tie her with Jenny Thompson as the most decorated female U.S. Olympian in history, with 12 medals total. But medals, records, and inspiration aside, I found myself captivated by Dara throughout the race because of the sense of fun she brought to the games.
It seemed like every time I turned on the TV, there she was — smiling, cheering on teammates, chatting and laughing with competitors, even holding off the start of a race to let a competitor fix a ripped bathing suit.
The NBC TV commentators didn't know what to make of her. They frequently referred to her as "Chatty Cathy" because she was constantly breaking the unwritten rules of Serious Competition by chatting happily with competitors moments before the whistle with a big smile on her face — then kicking (almost) everyone's ass in the water. Waving to the cheering crowd before a race Diving into the water at the whistle Even when she came in second, she was hugging her competitors in congratulations only moments later, with the same infectious smile. Torres (right) misses the Gold in the Women's 50m Freestyle by 1/100th of a second Dara smiles When she was questioned on-camera immediately following her close defeat to Germany's Germany's Britta Steffen, Torres first response was to joke, "Maybe I shouldn't have filed my nails last night." Receiving the silver medal for the Women's 50m Freestyle
Watching her race was perform at the Olympics was truly a pleasure — and I don't even particularly like watching swimming events. (Especially because watching them reminds me of what a lazy ass I am.) On the heels of all the media coverage of China's Herculean (and questionable) efforts to prepare for the games; all the serious behind-the-scenes analysis of the athletes and their training regimens; and all the inevitable suspicion around steroid use and unfair judging (seriously, how biased did those judges seem against Shawn Johnson and Nastia?), it was great to see someone put the fun and sportsmanship back into the Olympics. And it doesn't hurt that that person happens to be aesthetically appealing, too — even in clothes. Dara at the Olympics Speedo party Which have been your favorite female athletes/moments at the Olympics so far? Submitted by on August 18, 2008 - 3:48am. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
Rebecca Addlington
Favorite moment:
right now!
Softball and Baseball will no longer be olympic, which is only fair, as the top players of the NBL are busy playing the "Worldseries" and don't bother about Olympic Games. And Softball is similarly dominated (and widespread as/) by the USA, which is nothing bad, but makes no sense considering over 200 competing countries, inhabited by people only yawning at the pure thought of it.
Otherwise, Torres and her age are outstanding, but there was also a 67 year old Japanese, who participated in classical dressage. His first Olympic Games were 44 years ago in Tokio, 1964! Cheers to that!
I'd like to stand up for
Plenty of other sports are dominated by one country
Should we get rid of diving because diving is dominated by China? Or badminton or ping pong because really, most of the world yawns when those are on? Or how about the sports that may be relatively equally represented by different countries, but virtually nobody in ANY of those countries except those in the sport really cares about them, such as the martial arts or fencing? I would say definitely no. The Olympics are not to entertain us, they are to test the best atheletes in the world.
Oh - I just realized, I am actually agreeing with the poster I clicked reply to. I'm disagreeing with the original one. In case that is not clear.
From what I understand, the
I'm from Europe & have to
ditto that - i'm in the
ditto that - i'm in the UK
I only know now what it is since I've googled it.. when i heard it mentioned as a stereotype on here i always imagined it was played with a medium sized ball which is soft and you play with your hands. like a cross between volleyball and football
turns out its like rounders or something? no wonder places its unknown in can't play! does seem a little silly to make it a worldwide tournament when other things which are done in many places aren't.. like is skateboarding/freerunning gona become part of the competition sometime?
Well, BMX is now part of the Olympics,
so skateboarding/freerunning may not be far behind.
I'm not particularly impressed by the "lack of competitiveness" argument. American dominance of basketball for decades didn't result in the elimination of the sport from the Olympics. And general anti-American sentiment is probably a component of this decision, but the IOC's ire over major league baseball's previously anemic anti-doping policies seems to have caught softball in the cross-current. Never mind that the softball players are subject to the same drug-testing regimen as all other Olympic athletes.
I'm more troubled by the fact that softball was originally added to the games to increase the number of women's team sport opportunities. Yes, the USA is dominant at this point, but Canada and Australia have defeated the US in recent non-Olympic play. In addition, the number of national softball federations -- 127 -- compares favorably with those of other sports whose inclusion in the Olympics is not in question:
Modern Pentathlon 103
Fencing 126
Field Hockey 122
Rowing 128
Sailing 124
Triathlon 123
By the by, softball's total national federations is more than double that of any Winter Olympics sport except skiing. Even ice hockey only has 61 federations. By the reasoning used by some to exclude softball from the Olympics, we should just cancel the winter games altogether. (Not advocating that -- I'm a native of colder climes and much prefer to see athletes shivering a little in competition.)
I played softball in school, but I don't feel any personal investment in the game as part of the Olympics. I just hate to see the IOC take away opportunities for large numbers of female athletes without offering comparable opportunities in return.
emma pooley
What a beautiful person.
Dara's an inspiration
Dara also swam in her last race (400 medley relay) one-half hour after swimming in the 50 Medley, yet she still managed to swim faster than Libby Trickett who had been warming down while Dara went through the 50 free medal ceremony. She had four minutes between receiving her medal and running back out on the deck for the relay. They made such a big deal when Lochte had a half-hour between 2 finals, but 41-year-old Dara had even less prep time and performed at her peak.
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." ~ Dara Torres
Adlington
Gotta agree with Rebecca Adlington, she has been amazing and so down to Earth!
Also, I am a big fan of the gymnastics and was really pleased Nastia Liukin won as she is a beautiful gymnast (I'm not a huge fan of powerhouses like Johnson), however, the Chinese did blow them away in the team.
a pavlova for pavlova
Dara is a delight!
I have to agree that Dara
I have to agree that Dara Torres is an awesome competitor and an inspiration to sportspeople from all countries.
However, I have to take issue with the US media questioning, accusing and complaining about China in these games. That does not seem like sportsmanship to me. More like sour grapes. I don't think the judges were that biased towards China, plus all home teams get some home team advantage, and I don't think the US media should be complaining because they are second on the medal table. I think it's great that the medals are so well spread out and that other countries, like China, are competing so well. Despite the many ideological differences I may have with China and their government, I respect and admire the skill and discipline of their athletes. Besides, i'm fairly sure the US will come first in the next Olympics. Besides the Chinese team are competing in all events, including handball.
I realise this is an American site but there are a number of international members from all countries, including China.
Not China, but the judges
As they keep pointing out every time there is a ridiculous score, most of the judges are not Chinese. I am irritated at the judges of ALL nationalities who seem to be judging completely unfairly.
Yesterday a gymnast who FELL DOWN won a medal in the vault. The vault basically is just the dismount, making it even more ridiculous. The commentators were explaining how many points should have been deducted just for the fall and for the error that led to it, and they didn't even take off that many points, not to mention the fact that even in a seemingly perfect routine they usually take off about 0.5 for tiny things that our untrained eyes can't see. Considering that the score difference was 0.025, this judging definitely cost Alicia the bronze.
In the team competition, too, the scores on the beam were not right. Would it have made a difference? Not necessarily. But that doesn't make it right. And in addition, going into the floor with the lead, as they should have done, might have changed the scores on the floor too, as clearly mental games play a huge role in gymnastics.
It just seems like every time someone who falls down or off and gets an absurdly high score, they are Chinese, and every time someone does a really good routine and gets an absurdly low one, they are American. I realize that traditionally the home team gets judged more leniently - but that doesn't make it right, and I thought, apparently naiively, that that was part of the goal of the new scoring systems, to make it less subjective and more fair.
As for the medal counts - I would love for the US to top it again. However, when we lose a track race or when Dara Torres loses by 0.01 second, I groan and wish that we would have done better, but I don't start blaming anyone, because as unfortunate as it is, at least it's fair. Even in the men's team competition, while I wished our guys had done better, China clearly kicked our asses and obviously deserved that gold. But when we lose based on clearly biased judging, I do blame the judges.
I do not see why there is not some sort of petition for clearly unfair scores. There's apparently the ability to petition for a re-check in SWIMMING, so why not in the open-to-bias gymnastics?
It used to be worse.
As it was said..."Nobody
As it was said...
"Nobody judges the judges" - Stick It, Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges)
Correct me if I'm wrong...
but hasn't the way gymnastics is judged actually changed since the last olympics. I think they now take into account the difficulty level of the moves the gymnast is trying which gives them a basic score from which they then deduct a variety of points for whether they fall over, bend in the wrong place, bad dismount etc. And it works out now that if you attempt the more difficult moves (& thus increase the risk that you'll mess up & fall flat on your face) you get more points in your basic score than an easier routine & so have a higher score from which to have your deductions taken if you mess up.
So basically it ends up where you can have one gymnast try all sorts of crazy, high difficulty moves & perhaps fall over but still end up with a higher final score than someone with an easier routine who didn't mess up at all. They reward the risk-takers with a higher basic score so even with the deductions for falling over they still have a higher final score than those doing the easy routines & no mess ups. I like it that way, I want to see them try the crazy, insane flips & combos.
Exactly right!
It's the high execution scores they are talking about
I actually very much agree with the difficulty inclusion. But it's the perfect vaults (whether easy or hard) getting lower "execution" scores that is the issue. The judges can't change the start values. For the vault, the girl who won the bronze and the one who got 4th had approximately equal start values, I think.
Right now I'm watching the uneven bars final and they are talking about the tiebreaking procedure, which aside from the fact that Nastia probably was judged lower even to create the tie, is a ridiculous procedure. I say that not because Nastia lost the tiebreaker, but no matter who. They just arbitrarily drop the second lowest score and re-calculate. Huh? I realize they can't complain now, but someone should have complained before!
And to bring it back on topic - it makes me wish for more swimming without the issue of judges! And Dara Torres is amazing!
UUmmm...
Ahh but it's the gold medal
Let'[s hope that assuages
Becky Adlington for me too
Firstly cos she's the 1st British women to get a gold medal in the swimming for something like 50 years, & not only that but she gets 2 in a week & totally destroys the longest standing swimming world record. I stayed up to 4am to watch that!
Also someone who I think is really inspiring (& her event hasn't even happened yet, think it's on Wednesday) is the South African swimmer Natalie du Toit. She had a road accident a few years ago, losing a leg, but is the first female amputee athlete to qualify & take part in the Olympics. Apparently she's got a fairly good shot at a medal & I'll be supporting her when she swims in her event.
Dara Torres
I watched an interview last night that Dara Torres gave where she talked about the success of Michael Phelps. They are, apparently, very close--he calls her mom and she refers to him as her son.
Anyway, in the interview, she mentioned watching Phelps win the 100m freestyle by 0.01 second and thinking "wow, that really sucks for the guy that came in second." And then, ironically, she notes that after the 50m that she was that guy.
It was pretty funny and, uniquely, self-effacing.
-----
"The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right..." - Judge Learned Hand, The Spirit of Liberty
Wonderful...
I always enjoy watching the Olympics to see the kind of wonderful attitude of athletes like Dara and to hear the back stories on many of the athletes. It always fills me with a sense of pride to watch someone who has trained so hard for so long accomplish so much.
The only sad thing is that so many of the athletes are forgotten while it seems that the majority of people only remember the gold medalists who end up with big endorsements, but it's also great to revel in the accomplishments of the athlete who ends up coming in last in the marathon or the only 1 of 3 athletes who competes for their country when the USA, China and other countries have hundreds of athletes participating. I'm a big fan of the underdog and the athletes that just came to participate and though they leave empty handed they always leave with a smile on their face.
The spirit of the Olympics is a wonderful thing... seeing Dara so happy for everyone else and overjoyed with her silver medals was indeed a happy moment that helped make up for the unsportsmanlike attitude shown by some of the athletes (and granted the disgraceful job of some of the judges too).
Congratulations to Dara for showing the world that a woman over 40 isn't "over the hill" and for showing what true sportmanship looks like.
(Self Appointed) "#1 Bridget McManus Fan"
Swedish wrestler...
Yeah because Ara should be so thankful that the paid off judge took away his chances at the gold that he had worked for the last four years. He took a stand for the sport that he loves because of what's happening to it.
Anywho Dara Torres was one of my favorite things about this years olymipcs and I think it's awesome that she's still racing and not listening to people that tell her not to do it.
dara torres is hot even with clothes
that pic of dara torres is hot
she has been one of my favorites along with misty may and kerri walsh
Dara Torres is a BEAST!
She's been amazing at these Olympics. Michael Phelps is great and all, but he's also 23. If he's still competitive at 41, I'll be surprised.
Watching Rebecca Adlington win the first gold medal for GB in swimming in 48 years was also amazing...and then to see her a few days later turn around and win another gold, beating Janet Evans record...unbelievable. Evans set that record the same year that Adlington was born....just crazy to think about it.
So far my favourites are
So far my favourites are fellow Italians Federica Pellegrini, gold medal of 200m free style swimming and world record in 400m and the wonderful Valentina Vezzali, who won the gold medal in the individual foil, 17 years of medals (she's 34 now), 4 Olympics (including Beijing) and she will be back in London!
And, of course, they're both beautiful too.. =D
role-model
I'll be totally honest here: I'm not an Olympics nut. I never paid attention to the games until this year. But now because of athletes like Torres, Johnson, and the dynamic duo Walsh and May, my dad and i are glued to the television every evening.
I agree with a previous poster who said it's sad that so many great athletes are ignored because they fall in the shadow of gold-medalists and the likes of Michael Phelps. In my opinion, any athlete who makes it to the Olympics is amazing. And someone like Torres, who has shown an incredible kind of longevity, strikes in me an inspiration and sense of self-worth that Michael Phelps couldn't.
Even though i'm only twenty-two, never plan on having kids, and prefer land sports over water sports, Dara Torres is my new athletic hero. If you're looking for a good role-model, she's it.
Dara!
Hey this is a great post - Like you said, Dara has been really fun to watch not only for the obvious impressive busting out of skills, but for her fantastic attitude. It shows that you can care about something a great deal, and still not let the pressure completely overshadow the fun. She seems like a great team mate and competitor. She also has a beautiful smile. . .
I also liked watching the Jamaican team sweep the women's 100m sprint. I always think it's exciting when a country sweeps an event, and this one was particularly fun because Shelly-Ann Frasier was so excited about winning gold that she literally rolled around on the track clutching her flag with a huge grin on her face. She was positively giddy! You couldn't help but feel happy with her.
And the winner of the women's marathon is 38! Cool! Do they seriously run those at a 5-minute-mile pace, or was my brain math-hallucinating when I read her score? That seems like it would be physically impossible (or at least it would be for me)!
I've gotta give props to...
She's a real athelete, in
Just a few faves
on the U.S. side:
Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor in beach volleyball -- they are so fun to watch! And talk about talented -- their most recent victory puts them at 107 straight wins. Meaning they haven't lost a match in over a year!
I also was impressed by the whole U.S. swim team -- Rebecca Soni's surprise victory in the 200m breaststroke was awesome; Natalie Coughlin broke the record for most medals by an American swimmer in one Olympics (with 6) (plus she's super cute!). And of course, Dara Torres is awesome! I thought it was hilarious how surprised the commentators were with her "amazing sportsmanship" after she alerted everyone to the mishap with one of the swimmer's suits. I was also quite impressed with the Australian swim team.
But really all the women in general are pretty damn incredible, don't you think?
SHAWN JOHNSON, SHAWN JOHNSON, SHAWN JOHNSON...
...Oh and did I mention, SHAWN JOHNSON?!?!!?! That smile that she posses and flashes at every possible moment, oh my God! Even in defeat she shows the utmost sportsmanship (although Dara rules that with the whole stopping the race and everything).
In my heart Shawn will always stand a cut above the rest at 4'9". ;)
If homophobes always think what they've always thought, then they'll always get what they've always got...my foot have way up their
Shes puny little thing
I agree that Dara has really
...
I have to throw a shout out for the U.S. Womens Soccer team. To lose that first game to Norway then come back to win the group was impressive. They showed heart and instead of listening to everyone talking about it not being the same team it once was they let their playing do the talking.
Also how about the H20 Polo team. Nobody gave the U.S. Men a chance but they just won their group beating favorites like Croatia in the process.
Wow
Amazingly beautiful woman :D She is extemely talented and all very charming because shes always smilign those smiles of hers, they seem to have a soothing effect on me and anybody who experiences it first hand as well I believe? Lol.
And mannnn is it me or in the second picture she looks strilingly like Jim Carey? xD
Jelena Isinbajeva
I've seen some intervjues with her, and she's just adorable!
http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/ol/spill/verdi/68488
Always happy and smiling!
Come out, come out. Whoever you are.
My favorite moment
My favorite moment definately has to be when Becky Addlington won her second gold in the 800m. The fact that she beat the world record by so much was amazing! I was up til 4 am watching that, and the next day they must of shown it about 40 times on the UK's coverage of the Olympics! It's also amazing that she's only 19, and only went to Beijing "for the experience". It makes you think, what will she be like when the games come to London in 2012? I can't wait :) !
My war paint is Sharpie ink.
Anna Meares!!
dara torres on leno holy hell
did anyone else see how hot dara torres was on jay leno
Yes I saw her on leno. And
Yes I saw her on leno. And since we're all wondering about the gay with her did you see her raise her eyebrows in response to someone in the audience when they whistled for the Swedish swimmer as if to say, 'yeah, I agree. She's hot'..I still say this girl is totally gay..COME OUT DARA!!!