At 41, Dara Torres is Olympic Gold
by Allie Comeau on July 9, 2008 
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If there was ever an inspirational athlete, it’s Dara Torres. At 41 years of age, Torres has qualified for her fifth Olympics… after giving birth just two years ago and undergoing surgeries on both her knee and shoulder in the past eight months.
While there’s little doubt Torres was born to be an athlete, she’s had to work hard to compete at an Olympic level where most of the competition is half her age. This article on CNN claims that she certainly has the right “protoplasm” and genetic make-up to be an elite swimmer, but that she also has something else…
She also has three other key advantages — opportunity, motivation and incentive to train hard, said exercise physiologist Joel Stager, who directs a science of swimming program at Indiana University.
“It shows us what we can do,” Stager said. “It’s just that most of us don’t.”
Torres’ training, which includes resistance training with free weights, weight machines, floor exercises, and core strengthening exercises, has kept her in top shape. She’s been able to stop the natural decline in muscle mass that happens between your 30’s and 40’s and compete at an Olympic level at an age where most athletes have long since retired.
Dara Torres shows us that we can live the kind of life we want – and achieve the kind of fitness level we desire – at any age. We just have to work for it. Like all valuable things in this world, it doesn’t come easy, but is well worth the effort. We can’t all be Olympic athletes, but we don’t have to take aging lying down. We should take it running, jumping, swimming, riding, hiking, walking or dancing instead.
Torres “is a benchmark” for that kind of dedication, and she shows that devotion to exercise can help redefine aging, Stager said.
It seems exercise could very well be the only true fountain of youth. Stay fit and you’ll stay feeling young – at any age.
