I'm not sure what to think. Not only five Olympics, but it's not like she kept swimming the whole time. She took two retirements that lasted several years each, and there were two Olympic cycles where she didn't even try. When she was young, she didn't win anything at the Olympics but relay medals. Swimmers don't normally improve with age, and the few that do don't take long layoffs. At 33 in Sydney, she won some invidual bronzes, better than she had done before. I felt suspicious then; in her favor, though, she is a sprinter and it's a lot easier to retain sprint ability with age or long layoffs. Still, when you're going up against the best in the country or the world... The secret of her success might be completely legal, but inaccessible to most other swimmers because of the amount of money and time it involves. She's always been wealthy, and has several full-time staff attending to her and traveling with her. Her own nutritionist feeding her small meals of performance food six times a day. Massage therapists and a chiropractor on call. A coach and stretching coaches that come in. She spends all day working out and paying attention to every bit of her body. Therefore, the ripped physique, and possibly the race results that go with it. (of course, she hires someone else to take care of her kid all day while she does this) I got the impression that she is very competitive and centered on herself. On the other hand, I've been around a lot of swimmers and this generally does not happen. There are lots of "older" swimmers at the trials in their late twenties, who have been working out this whole time, and still aren't quite making the team anymore, even if they did four or more years ago. If they do make it, they're either hanging in there at a plateau level or improving very slowly over time with lots of hard work. (and even then it probably won't improve past 30, at world class level) Unless you're a young swimmer or new swimmer, your times won't improve so suddenly and drastically - remember Michelle Smith from Ireland and we all know how that turned out. It's not like those other swimmers in the water with her aren't working hard. They do strength training too, they work out for hours every day. I feel bad for these girls when someone who's been out of the game for years just shows up and takes their spot without even getting out of breath on the way there (and suspiciously gaining energy when others seem to lose theirs, near the end of a race). It's possible she could have illegal help. Her "husband" (well I don't think she actually married him, not sure why) is a doctor and she has the money to access all kinds of resources. It is true that she volunteered for extra testing. The testing never seems to be caught up with the technology on these things, and some people say she could have done it during the years off and is merely reaping the benefits now. On the other hand, I suppose it could be due to all the resources she has access to and the genuine hard work on her body - though she still rubs me the wrong way personality-wise. Also, look at her shoulders and neck. Sadly, now that I think about it, I've suspected (and sometimes correctly) a lot of the female sprinters over the years. Anyone follow swimming, or any thoughts on this situation?
That's interesting stuff Isabel. I'm not a swimmer or a track and field athlete but I know one of the biggest signs that someone could be juicing is unexpected improvement. I think you mention that some suspect she was juicing during her retirement when she wouldn't be subject to the testing that other athletes would've then when they were actively competing. If she stopped though to come back to the Olympics would the benefits of steriods still stay with her for this long? As far as her personality and attitude a friend of mine swam competitively in college and he said many swimmers, at least the male ones, were self-centered jerks. I met Mat Biondi once at Cal and another swimmer who went to the 1992 Olympics and they seemed OK though.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3474191 Pat Forde also feels that the Torres story is too good to be clean.
