To Beijing: Dara Torres, 41

By BRAD TOWNSEND / The Dallas Morning News
(Published Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 09:10AM)

OMAHA, Neb. -- As invariably happens in swimming, one of the sport's most historic feats was a bang-bang moment on July 4.

Dara Torres, 41, touched the wall first, making her swimming's oldest female Olympic qualifier ever. But 13,247 pairs of eyes in the Qwest Center had to turn to the JumboTron for verification.

Pandemonium. The red, white and blue T-shirt-wearing U.S. Olympic trials fans erupted, Torres burst into tears, and 'American Woman' blared on the public address system.

Yes, it was the Fourth of July, but after Torres' startling 100-meter freestyle victory, Wonder Woman seemed a more apt description. Many thought she would place top-six and earn a relay spot, but that her best chance for an individual-event berth was this weekend's 50 freestyle.

"I think tonight was all mental," she said. "When I was warming up, I thought this was going to have to be about my head and heart, because my body was beat up."

Which made the result seem all the more surreal. After a seven-year layoff during which she gave birth to daughter Tessa in April 2006, Torres is the first American swimmer to qualify for five Olympics.

"I'm ecstatic. I can't believe it," she said. "It's sort of bittersweet for me because I've made my fifth Olympic team, but I've got to be away from my daughter for a month, and that's really, really hard emotionally.

"But I'm happy I'm going to Beijing."

How improbable was this? As Torres climbed onto the Lane 5 starting pad at 7:55 p.m., only one of the seven competitors lined up to her right and left was alive when she competed in her first U.S. trials in 1984.

That swimmer, second-place finisher Natalie Coughlin, was 1 in 1984.

She admitted her goal was "third-through-sixth" and a relay spot, then focus on the 50 free. After touching the wall, she looked up at the JumboTron, but the words and numbers were blurry.

"They need to make those numbers bigger for people my age," she joked.

But after pulling off her ancient smoked-colored goggles and doing an NBC interview, she had to sit and collect herself. She thought about her father, who died a year and a half ago, before her comeback started, and about Tessa in the stands.

She carried Tessa to the medal ceremony. There was a bouquet for mom-Olympian and a Teddy bear for Tessa to clutch. For a crowd that had alternated cheering and holding its breath -- and the incredulous winner -- it was a night to marvel.

"I think," Torres said, "I'm going to wake up tomorrow feeling very, very sore."