Dara Torres
Encyclopedia
Dara Grace Torres is an American international swimmer
and a twelve-time Olympic
medalist. Torres was the first swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008), and, at age 41, the oldest swimmer ever to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics
, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle
, 4x100-meter medley relay
, and 4x100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medal
s in all three events.
Torres has won twelve Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze), five of which she won in the 2000 Summer Olympics
, when at age 33, she was the oldest member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Swim Team. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.
On August 1, 2007, at age 40 (just 15 months after giving birth to her first child), she won gold in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals
in Indianapolis
, her 14th national championship. On August 4, she broke her own American record in the 50-meter freestyle, 26 years after she first set the American record at just 15 years old.
, the daughter of Edward Torres and Marylu Kauder. She grew up in Los Angeles, California
, the fifth of six children and the older of two girls. At age 7, Torres started following her brothers to swim practice at the local Y.M.C.A. and later joined the Culver City swim team.
She attended the Westlake School for Girls (now Harvard-Westlake School
), and swam for the Westlake swim team under coach Darlene Bible, where she set California Interscholastic Federation
records that remain to this day. As a teenager in the 1980s, she swam for the Mission Viejo Nadadores
, in Mission Viejo, California
, under coach Mark Schubert
, the 2008 Olympic swimming coach.
Torres received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida
in Gainesville, Florida
, where she swam for the Florida Gators swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) competition under coach Randy Reese
from 1985 to 1989. In her four years as a Gator swimmer, Torres won nine Southeastern Conference
(SEC) championships and nine NCAA championships, including the 400-meter freestyle relay in 1986; the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter medley relay, 400-meter medley relay and 400-meter freestyle relay in 1988; and the 200-meter medley relay and 400-meter medley relay in 1989. At Florida, she was named the SEC Athlete of the Year in 1988, and earned twenty-eight All-American swimming honors—the maximum number possible during a college career.
Torres graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree
in telecommunications in 1990, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1999.
in Los Angeles, California
, Torres was a member of the winning U.S. women's 4x100-meter relay team, earning a gold medal for swimming in the first-round qualifying heat as well the event final. Her winning teammates in the final event included Nancy Hogshead, Jenna Johnson
and Carrie Steinseifer
; Jill Sterkel
and Mary Wayte
also swam in the event's second-round qualifying heat.
in Seoul, Korea, Torres qualified for the U.S. women's team in one individual event and two relay events. Torres earned a bronze medal for swimming for the third-place U.S. women's team in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay final together with Mitzi Kremer
, Laura Walker
and Mary Wayte
; and won a silver medal for swimming the freestyle leg of the 4x100-meter medley relay in the third heat of the qualifying round for the second-place U.S. team. Torres also placed seventh in the final of the 100-meter freestyle event.
in Barcelona, Spain. She swam the second leg of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay for the winning U.S. team that included Nicole Haislett
, Angel Martino
and Jenny Thompson
, and earned a gold medal for her efforts in the final event and first-round qualifying heat. Ashley Tappin
and Chrissy Ahmann also swam for the team in the qualifying heats of the event.
in Sydney, Australia, but, as usual, saved her best for two of the major relay events of the U.S. Olympic women's team. She swam the second leg for the winning U.S. women's team in final of the 4x100-meter freestyle team that included Amy Van Dyken
, Courtney Shealy
and Jenny Thompson
, with Erin Phenix
and Ashley Tappin
also swimming in the qualifying rounds. Torres won a second gold medal for anchoring the winning U.S. team in the 4x100-meter medley relay, together with teammates B.J. Bedford, Megan Quann and Jenny Thompson in the final, and Courtney Shealy, Staciana Stitts
, Ashley Tappin
and Amy Van Dyken in the qualifying rounds. Torres also earned three individual bronze medals in each of the 50-meter freestyle, the 100-meter butterfly and the 100-meter freestyle—tying teammate Jenny Thompson for third place in the last event. At 33 years old, Torres was already the oldest member of the U.S. Olympic swim team, but won more medals (5) than any other team member.
On July 5, 2008, she qualified for the finals in the 50-meter freestyle that were held on July 6. In that semi-final, she broke the American record with a time of 24.38 seconds. On July 6, in the finals she broke that record for the ninth time, setting it at 24.25 seconds and winning the top American women's spot in the 50-meter freestyle. On July 7, Torres confirmed that she would be pulling out of 100-meter freestyle swim for her time at the Beijing Olympics to focus her efforts on the 50-meter freestyle. Lacey Nymeyer
took over the position from Torres. On July 30, at the U.S. swim team's final training in Singapore, Torres, together with Amanda Beard
and Natalie Coughlin
were elected captains of the U.S. Olympic women's swimming team.
In order to pre-empt any speculation that she might be taking performance-enhancing drugs, Torres volunteered for an enhanced drug-testing program. According to her, when people ask if she is on performance-enhancing drugs, she takes it as a compliment. Torres uses resistance stretching with trainers Anne Tierney and Steve Sierra from Innovative Body Solutions and refers to this training as her "secret weapon" for continued success.
Torres won silver on August 10, 2008, at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as the anchor swimmer of the U.S. 4x100-meter freestyle relay. This was the fifth time in five tries she has earned an Olympic medal in that event.
On August 17, 2008, at the age of 41 years and 125 days, she won the silver medal in the women's 50-meter freestyle, finishing in a new American record time of 24.07, 0.01 of a second behind the winner, Britta Steffen
. About thirty-five minutes later, she won another silver medal as part of the U.S. 4x100-meter medley relay team. Torres' split on the 4x100 medley relay (52.27) is the fastest 100-meter freestyle split in relay history. The American record for the women's 100-meter freestyle as an individual event was 53.39 seconds as of August 2008, making Torres' time a full second faster—fast even for a relay split.
Torres' twelve Olympic medals tie the all-time medal record for a female Olympic swimmer with fellow American Jenny Thompson
. Eight of Thompson's medals were gold, compared with Torres' four. However, Torres has won twice as many individual medals (4) as Thompson (2), Thompson having won ten medals in relay team events.
in Rome, Italy. This was the first time since 1986 that Torres competed in the World Championships; she placed eighth in the 50-meter freestyle and she did not advance beyond the qualifying heats in the 50-meter butterfly.
, ESPN
, TNT
, OLN and Fox News Channel
. She now hosts the golf
show The Clubhouse, on the Resort Sports Network
. She is also an occasional model, having appeared in the Sports Illustrated
1994 Swimsuit Issue
. In 2005, she was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
.
In the mid-1990s, she married and subsequently divorced sports producer Jeff Gowen. Her second marriage was also brief from June 2003 to December 2004, to Israeli-born surgeon Itzhak Shasha. Prior to marrying Shasha, Torres officially converted to Judaism (her late father was Jewish) to formalise her status under Halacha.
Torres is no longer dating her reproductive endocrinologist, David Hoffman, but the two remain close friends. Hoffman was the fertility doctor who treated Torres. When Torres and Shasha separated, Torres and Hoffman began dating. Torres and Hoffman are the parents of Tessa Grace Torres-Hoffman, born in April 2006.
BP Products North America engaged Torres in 2009 to be part of its "Team Invigorate" advertising campaign to inspire others to live "younger for longer." She is the author of the inspirational memoir, Age is Just a Number, published in April 2009, and Gold Medal Fitness, published in May 2010.
In December 2009, The New York Times reported that a sports medicine doctor, Anthony Galea
, with whom Torres had previously consulted, was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
for allegedly distributing human growth hormone
and the drug Actovegin to professional athletes. Torres said that Dr. Galea's work was limited to draining fluid from her knee and diagnosing a muscle tear.
Torres is a veteran celebrity swimmer for Swim Across America, a charitable organization that raises funds for cancer research, in which she has participated for several years.
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and a twelve-time Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
medalist. Torres was the first swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008), and, at age 41, the oldest swimmer ever to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle
Freestyle swimming
Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...
, 4x100-meter medley relay
Medley swimming
Medley is a combination of four different swimming styles into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley or by four swimmers as a medley relay...
, and 4x100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medal
Silver medal
A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....
s in all three events.
Torres has won twelve Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze), five of which she won in the 2000 Summer Olympics
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
, when at age 33, she was the oldest member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Swim Team. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.
On August 1, 2007, at age 40 (just 15 months after giving birth to her first child), she won gold in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals
USA Swimming
USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. It is charged with selecting the United States Olympic Swimming team and any other teams which officially represent the United States, as well as the overall organization and operation of the sport within the...
in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, her 14th national championship. On August 4, she broke her own American record in the 50-meter freestyle, 26 years after she first set the American record at just 15 years old.
Early life and education
Torres was born in Beverly Hills, CaliforniaBeverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
, the daughter of Edward Torres and Marylu Kauder. She grew up in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, the fifth of six children and the older of two girls. At age 7, Torres started following her brothers to swim practice at the local Y.M.C.A. and later joined the Culver City swim team.
She attended the Westlake School for Girls (now Harvard-Westlake School
Harvard-Westlake School
Harvard-Westlake School is an independent, co-educational university preparatory day school consisting of two campuses located in Los Angeles, California with approximately 1,600 students enrolled in grades 7 through 12....
), and swam for the Westlake swim team under coach Darlene Bible, where she set California Interscholastic Federation
California Interscholastic Federation
The California Interscholastic Federation is the governing body for high school sports in the state of California. It mirrors similar governing bodies in other states; however, it differs from some of the others in that it covers most high schools in the state of California, both public and...
records that remain to this day. As a teenager in the 1980s, she swam for the Mission Viejo Nadadores
Mission Viejo Nadadores
The Mission Viejo Nadadores is one of the largest swimming and diving clubs in the United States. The team is located in Mission Viejo, California, training at the Marguerite Aquatic Center. The "Nadadores" were started in 1968 and have had athletes at every Olympics since 1976...
, in Mission Viejo, California
Mission Viejo, California
Mission Viejo is a city located in southern Orange County, California, U.S. in the Saddleback Valley. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest master-planned communities ever built under a single project in the United States, and is rivaled only by Highlands Ranch, Colorado, in its size...
, under coach Mark Schubert
Mark Schubert
Mark Schubert has been USA Swimming's National Team Head Coach since June 2009). He took a paid leave of absence from his role with USA Swimming in September 2010....
, the 2008 Olympic swimming coach.
Torres received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
in Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
, where she swam for the Florida Gators swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
(NCAA) competition under coach Randy Reese
Randy Reese
Randy Reese is an American college and Olympic swimming coach. Reese is best known for coaching the Florida Gators swimming and diving teams to four national championships, and coaching the winners of eighteen Olympic gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals...
from 1985 to 1989. In her four years as a Gator swimmer, Torres won nine Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
(SEC) championships and nine NCAA championships, including the 400-meter freestyle relay in 1986; the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter medley relay, 400-meter medley relay and 400-meter freestyle relay in 1988; and the 200-meter medley relay and 400-meter medley relay in 1989. At Florida, she was named the SEC Athlete of the Year in 1988, and earned twenty-eight All-American swimming honors—the maximum number possible during a college career.
Torres graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in telecommunications in 1990, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1999.
1984 Summer Olympics
At the 1984 Summer Olympics1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Torres was a member of the winning U.S. women's 4x100-meter relay team, earning a gold medal for swimming in the first-round qualifying heat as well the event final. Her winning teammates in the final event included Nancy Hogshead, Jenna Johnson
Jenna Johnson
Jenna Johnson is a former competitive swimmer from the United States who won three Olympic medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California: a gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay, a gold medal in the 4x100 medley relay, and a silver medal in the 100m butterfly...
and Carrie Steinseifer
Carrie Steinseifer
Carolyn Lynne Steinseifer is a retired freestyle swimmer from the United States, who won a gold medal in the women's 100m freestyle at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California....
; Jill Sterkel
Jill Sterkel
Gillian "Jill" Sterkel is a former competitive freestyle swimmer for the United States of America. At the Olympic Games she won four medals in three Games spanning 12 years. She attended Glen A...
and Mary Wayte
Mary Wayte
Mary Alice Wayte Bradburne is a former American college and international swimmer who was a two-time Olympic gold medalist and television sports commentator.- Early years :...
also swam in the event's second-round qualifying heat.
1988 Summer Olympics
For the 1988 Summer Olympics1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
in Seoul, Korea, Torres qualified for the U.S. women's team in one individual event and two relay events. Torres earned a bronze medal for swimming for the third-place U.S. women's team in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay final together with Mitzi Kremer
Mitzi Kremer
Mitzi Patricia Kremer is a former freestyle swimmer from the United States, who was a member of the women's team that won the bronze medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea...
, Laura Walker
Laura Walker
Laura Anne Walker is a former American college and international swimmer who was an Olympic bronze medalist.Walker was a member of the third-place United States women's relay team that won the bronze medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea...
and Mary Wayte
Mary Wayte
Mary Alice Wayte Bradburne is a former American college and international swimmer who was a two-time Olympic gold medalist and television sports commentator.- Early years :...
; and won a silver medal for swimming the freestyle leg of the 4x100-meter medley relay in the third heat of the qualifying round for the second-place U.S. team. Torres also placed seventh in the final of the 100-meter freestyle event.
1992 Summer Olympics
Torres qualified for the U.S. Olympic women's team in a single event for the 1992 Summer Olympics1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
in Barcelona, Spain. She swam the second leg of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay for the winning U.S. team that included Nicole Haislett
Nicole Haislett
Nicole Lee Haislett Bacher is a former American college and international swimmer who was an eight-time American national college champion and a three-time Olympic gold medalist.- Early years :...
, Angel Martino
Angel Martino
Angelina L. Myers-Sims better known as Angel Martino is a former American swimmer. She swam in college at Furman University. Over her career, she won three relay Olympic gold medals and three Olympic bronze medals.In addition to her Olympic medals, she won twelve Pan Pacific medals, seven Goodwill...
and Jenny Thompson
Jenny Thompson
Jennifer Beth Thompson is an American former competitive swimmer, and one of the most decorated Olympians in history, winning twelve medals, including eight gold medals , in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics.Thompson, a Massachusetts native who calls Dover, New Hampshire her...
, and earned a gold medal for her efforts in the final event and first-round qualifying heat. Ashley Tappin
Ashley Tappin
Ashley Tara Tappin is a former American college and international swimmer and three-time Olympic gold medalist.Tappin was born in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta....
and Chrissy Ahmann also swam for the team in the qualifying heats of the event.
2000 Summer Olympics
Torres won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
in Sydney, Australia, but, as usual, saved her best for two of the major relay events of the U.S. Olympic women's team. She swam the second leg for the winning U.S. women's team in final of the 4x100-meter freestyle team that included Amy Van Dyken
Amy Van Dyken
Amy Van Dyken is an American swimmer who has six career Olympic gold medals. Four of these gold medals came in the 1996 Summer Olympics, making her the first American woman to accomplish such a feat and the most successful athlete at the 1996 Summer Olympics...
, Courtney Shealy
Courtney Shealy
Courtney Shealy is a former freestyle swimmer from the United States, who swam the third leg of the world record-breaking 4×100 m freestyle relay team that won gold at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Her winning teammates were Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres, and Amy Van Dyken...
and Jenny Thompson
Jenny Thompson
Jennifer Beth Thompson is an American former competitive swimmer, and one of the most decorated Olympians in history, winning twelve medals, including eight gold medals , in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics.Thompson, a Massachusetts native who calls Dover, New Hampshire her...
, with Erin Phenix
Erin Phenix
Erin Phenix , is an American swimmer who won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.-Early life:Phenix was raised in Greenhills, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, by her mother, Laurie. She had her first swimming lessons at the age of eight. In 1997, at Ursuline Academy, she won the state...
and Ashley Tappin
Ashley Tappin
Ashley Tara Tappin is a former American college and international swimmer and three-time Olympic gold medalist.Tappin was born in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta....
also swimming in the qualifying rounds. Torres won a second gold medal for anchoring the winning U.S. team in the 4x100-meter medley relay, together with teammates B.J. Bedford, Megan Quann and Jenny Thompson in the final, and Courtney Shealy, Staciana Stitts
Staciana Stitts
Staciana Stitts Winfield is a breaststroke swimmer from the United States. She is a 2000 Summer Olympics and 1999 Pan American Games gold medalist, and 1998 Goodwill Games silver medalist...
, Ashley Tappin
Ashley Tappin
Ashley Tara Tappin is a former American college and international swimmer and three-time Olympic gold medalist.Tappin was born in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta....
and Amy Van Dyken in the qualifying rounds. Torres also earned three individual bronze medals in each of the 50-meter freestyle, the 100-meter butterfly and the 100-meter freestyle—tying teammate Jenny Thompson for third place in the last event. At 33 years old, Torres was already the oldest member of the U.S. Olympic swim team, but won more medals (5) than any other team member.
2008 Summer Olympics
At age 41, Torres returned to the pool to obtain a spot in her fifth Olympic Games, unprecedented for an American female swimmer, especially given the fact that she sat out the 1996 and 2004 Olympic games. In fact, she is the first woman in history to swim in the Olympics past the age of 40. Her Olympic career spans twenty-four years.On July 5, 2008, she qualified for the finals in the 50-meter freestyle that were held on July 6. In that semi-final, she broke the American record with a time of 24.38 seconds. On July 6, in the finals she broke that record for the ninth time, setting it at 24.25 seconds and winning the top American women's spot in the 50-meter freestyle. On July 7, Torres confirmed that she would be pulling out of 100-meter freestyle swim for her time at the Beijing Olympics to focus her efforts on the 50-meter freestyle. Lacey Nymeyer
Lacey Nymeyer
Lacey Pearl Nymeyer is an Olympic swimmer from the United States.-Personal:Nymeyer is a Tucson native who graduated in 2004 from Mountain View High School . She is also a graduate of the University of Arizona where she majored in physical education. Away from her own training, Nymeyer leads swim...
took over the position from Torres. On July 30, at the U.S. swim team's final training in Singapore, Torres, together with Amanda Beard
Amanda Beard
Amanda Ray Beard is an American swimmer and a seven-time Olympic medalist . She is a former world record holder in the 200-meter breaststroke ....
and Natalie Coughlin
Natalie Coughlin
Natalie Anne Coughlin is an American swimmer and eleven-time Olympic medallist.At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Coughlin became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympics and the first woman ever to win a 100 m backstroke gold in two consecutive...
were elected captains of the U.S. Olympic women's swimming team.
In order to pre-empt any speculation that she might be taking performance-enhancing drugs, Torres volunteered for an enhanced drug-testing program. According to her, when people ask if she is on performance-enhancing drugs, she takes it as a compliment. Torres uses resistance stretching with trainers Anne Tierney and Steve Sierra from Innovative Body Solutions and refers to this training as her "secret weapon" for continued success.
Torres won silver on August 10, 2008, at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as the anchor swimmer of the U.S. 4x100-meter freestyle relay. This was the fifth time in five tries she has earned an Olympic medal in that event.
On August 17, 2008, at the age of 41 years and 125 days, she won the silver medal in the women's 50-meter freestyle, finishing in a new American record time of 24.07, 0.01 of a second behind the winner, Britta Steffen
Britta Steffen
Britta Steffen is a German swimmer who specializes in freestyle, who is the current holder of the world record in women's 50 and 100 metre freestyle....
. About thirty-five minutes later, she won another silver medal as part of the U.S. 4x100-meter medley relay team. Torres' split on the 4x100 medley relay (52.27) is the fastest 100-meter freestyle split in relay history. The American record for the women's 100-meter freestyle as an individual event was 53.39 seconds as of August 2008, making Torres' time a full second faster—fast even for a relay split.
Torres' twelve Olympic medals tie the all-time medal record for a female Olympic swimmer with fellow American Jenny Thompson
Jenny Thompson
Jennifer Beth Thompson is an American former competitive swimmer, and one of the most decorated Olympians in history, winning twelve medals, including eight gold medals , in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics.Thompson, a Massachusetts native who calls Dover, New Hampshire her...
. Eight of Thompson's medals were gold, compared with Torres' four. However, Torres has won twice as many individual medals (4) as Thompson (2), Thompson having won ten medals in relay team events.
2009 National and World Championships
At the U.S. National Championships, Torres won the 50-meter freestyle and placed in the 50-met butterfly to qualify to swim at the 2009 World Championships2009 World Aquatics Championships
The 2009 World Aquatics Championships or the XIII FINA World Championships were celebrated in Rome, Italy in 2009 from July 17 to August 2. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines: diving, swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo.Rome won...
in Rome, Italy. This was the first time since 1986 that Torres competed in the World Championships; she placed eighth in the 50-meter freestyle and she did not advance beyond the qualifying heats in the 50-meter butterfly.
2012 Summer Olympics
Following reconstructive surgery of one of her knees, Torres stated in September 2010 that she had begun training with the goal of competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.Personal life
Torres has worked in television as a reporter and announcer for American networks such as NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
, OLN and Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
. She now hosts the golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
show The Clubhouse, on the Resort Sports Network
Resort Sports Network
Outside Television is a Direct-broadcast satellite network operated by Mariah Media which publishes Outside Magazine that creates and distributes outdoor lifestyle and resort-based sports programs to a network of stations across the United States-History:The network was founded in partnership by...
. She is also an occasional model, having appeared in the Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
1994 Swimsuit Issue
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....
. In 2005, she was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame was opened July 7, 1981, in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around the world....
.
In the mid-1990s, she married and subsequently divorced sports producer Jeff Gowen. Her second marriage was also brief from June 2003 to December 2004, to Israeli-born surgeon Itzhak Shasha. Prior to marrying Shasha, Torres officially converted to Judaism (her late father was Jewish) to formalise her status under Halacha.
Torres is no longer dating her reproductive endocrinologist, David Hoffman, but the two remain close friends. Hoffman was the fertility doctor who treated Torres. When Torres and Shasha separated, Torres and Hoffman began dating. Torres and Hoffman are the parents of Tessa Grace Torres-Hoffman, born in April 2006.
BP Products North America engaged Torres in 2009 to be part of its "Team Invigorate" advertising campaign to inspire others to live "younger for longer." She is the author of the inspirational memoir, Age is Just a Number, published in April 2009, and Gold Medal Fitness, published in May 2010.
In December 2009, The New York Times reported that a sports medicine doctor, Anthony Galea
Anthony Galea
Anthony Galea is a Canadian sports medicine specialist. He is a team physician with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League...
, with whom Torres had previously consulted, was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
for allegedly distributing human growth hormone
Growth hormone
Growth hormone is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction and regeneration in humans and other animals. Growth hormone is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior...
and the drug Actovegin to professional athletes. Torres said that Dr. Galea's work was limited to draining fluid from her knee and diagnosing a muscle tear.
Torres is a veteran celebrity swimmer for Swim Across America, a charitable organization that raises funds for cancer research, in which she has participated for several years.
See also
- Florida GatorsFlorida GatorsThe Florida Gators are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The "Lady Gators" is an alternative nickname sometimes used by the Gators women's teams...
- List of notable Jewish swimmers
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event
- List of multiple Olympic medalists in one event
- List of United States records in swimming
- List of University of Florida alumni
- List of University of Florida Olympians
- World record progression 50 metres freestyleWorld record progression 50 metres freestyleThe first world record in the men's 50 metres freestyle in long course swimming was recognised by the International Swimming Federation in 1976...