Dara Torres

Who is Dara Torres?

Dara Grace Torres is an American former competition swimmer and world record-holder who is a twelve-time Olympic medalist. Torres is the first and only swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympic Games, and, at age 41, is 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, 4×100-meter medley relay, and 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medals in all three events.

Torres has won twelve Olympic medals, one of three women with the most Olympic women's swimming medals. She 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 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, she won gold in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, her fourteenth national championship. On August 4, she broke her own American record in the 50-meter freestyle, 25 years after she first set the American record at just 15 years old. She lowered her initial American record by 1.62 seconds. Torres has broke or lowered her own American record in the 50 free ten times, which is the most by any American swimmer in any event.