Dara torres bio
Dara Torres of Coral Springs, is arguably the fastest female swimmer in America. She entered her first international swimming competition at age 14 and competed in her first Olympics a few years later in 1984. At the Beijing Games in 2008, Dara became the oldest swimmer to compete in the Olympics. When she took three silver medals – including the infamous heartbreaking 50-meter freestyle race where she missed the Gold by 1/100th of a second – America loved her all the more for her astonishing achievement and her good-natured acceptance of the results. In total, Dara has competed in 5 Olympic Games and has won 12 medals in her Olympic career. Her impressive performance in Beijing has inspired many older athletes to consider re-entering competition, including cyclist Lance Armstrong. Even after undergoing radical reconstructive surgery on her knee in fall of 2009, Torres has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon and still says she will try for the 2012 London Olympics. Olympian, author, mother, and role model, Dara Torres is many things to many people, but above all, she is an inspiration.
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Dara Torres
Dara Torres Speaker Biography
Dara Torres is arguably the fastest female swimmer in America. She entered her first international swimming competition at age 14 and competed in her first Olympics a few years later in 1984. At the Beijing Games in 2008, Torres became the oldest swimmer to compete in the Olympics. When she took three silver medals—including the infamous heartbreaking 50-meter freestyle race where she missed the Gold by 1/100th of a second—America loved her all the more for her astonishing achievement and her good-natured acceptance of the results.
In total, Dara Torres has competed in 5 Olympic Games and has won 12 medals in her Olympic career. Her impressive performance in Beijing has inspired many older athletes to consider re-entering competition, including cyclist Lance Armstrong. Even after undergoing radical reconstructive surgery on her knee in fall of 2009, Torres has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Aside from her amazing accomplishments in the pool, Torres has other talents on dry land as well. She has appeared as a commentator on such networks as Fox News, ESPN and the Discovery Channel, and was the first female athlete to be featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2009, Torres won the ESPY award for Best Comeback and was named one of the Top Female Athletes of the decade by Sports Illustrated magazine.
Her memoir, Age is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams At Any Stage In Your Life, was published in April, 2009 and was listed as one of the top 25 best-selling business books in the month of June. Her second book, Gold Medal Fitness: A Revolutionary 5-Week Program was released in May, 2010.
Olympian, author, mother, and role model, Torres is many things to many people, but above all, she is an inspiration.
Call Executive Speakers Bureau to book Dara Torres 901-754-9404.
Dara Torres
Hall Of Fame Bio #
Dara Torres had one of the longest, most successful careers of any Olympic swimmer, one which saw her win 12 Olympic medals, four of those being gold medals. In her first Olympics in 1984, Torres captured the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay. She came back for more in 1988 to earn two more medals, silver in the 400 medley relay and bronze in the 400 freestyle relay. After not competing at the Atlanta 1996 Games, Torres came back at age 33 to win four medals at the Sydney 2000 Games. While many assumed her Olympic career was over following her 2000 performance, Torres’ passion for the sport brought her back eight years later, where she would compete at the Beijing 2008 Games, becoming the oldest female swimmer to do so. With her performance at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, Torres became the first American to swim in five Olympic Games. At age 41, Torres earned silver medals in the 50-meter freestyle, 400 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay, setting American records in all three events. Torres’ 12 Olympic medals currently tie the all-time medal record for a female Olympic swimmer. For two of her five Olympic appearances, Torres was the oldest member of the U.S. Olympic team. Despite being the eldest team member in a sport that often favors younger athletes, Torres still managed to win at least one medal in each of her five Olympic Games appearances.Torres owns 16 U.S. national titles from 1982 to 2007: 10 in the 50 freestyle, five in the 100 freestyle and one in the 200 freestyle. She won three gold medals at the 1987 Pan Pacific Championships, winning the 100 freestyle, 400 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay. She set eight American records throughout her career.
Dara Torres
American swimmer (born 1967)
For the politician, see Dara Torre.
Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008), and at age 41, the oldest swimmer to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley relay, and 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medals in all three events.
Torres won 12 Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze), at the time this was the most Olympic women's swimming medals, tied with fellow American Jenny Thompson. Torres won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics, when at age 33, she was the oldest member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic swim team. She won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she competed.
Early years
Torres was born on April 15, 1967, to a family in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Edward Torres, and Marylu Kauder. Her father was a real estate developer and casino owner; her mother Marylu was a former American model. Torres grew up in Beverly Hills, California, the fifth of six children and the older of two girls. As a seven-year-old, she followed in the footsteps of her older brothers by joining their community YMCA for swimming practice; afterward, she signed up for the swimming club in Culver City to train. At 14, she won the national open championship in the 50-yard freestyle by defeating the then-current champion, Jill Sterkel, a college junior.
She attended the Westlake School for Girls (now Harvard-Westlake School), and competed for the Westlake swim team under coach Alison Esses from the seventh grade through her sophomore year in high school. She