Olympians of a Certain Age

The Indomitable Dana Torres

Dana Torres - Just Another Day at the Pool

Mark Foster - The Silver Fox Flag Bearer

Fierce Foster

From the Daily Mail Online

This article about the oldest swimmers in the Beijing Olympics

For anyone who thinks that Mark Foster is a little on the old side for swimming, three months beyond his 38th birthday, meet American Dana Torres.
She won't see 40 again. Olympic swimming pools used to be where adolescents splashed up and down before they went out into the real world to find themselves a job.
The average age was 18 and it was a rare one who swam at more than two Olympics. Not now. Foster retired at 35 but could not stay away. Torres, at 41, is making her third comeback.

Both are competing at their fifth Olympics, a swimming record for a British man and, in Torres' case, a record for a woman of any nationality. Foster was not selected for Athens four years ago and Torres was in 'retirement' when the 1996 and 2004 Games took place.
When she won the first of her nine Olympic medals in 1984 the Games were in Los Angeles, close to her home in Beverly Hills. Carl Lewis and Seb Coe were the heroes and Michael Phelps, who competes here for eight gold medals, was not even born.

And now Dana Torres has helped the US team win a silver in the 400 freestyle Relay.

To compete in the Olympics at any age is an amazing achievement. To compete in swimming after the age of 40 is one step away from being super human.

Anyone up for a Swim?