Posted 8-6-08
Torres: Too bad some athletes don't have a conscience
By Gerard Gallagher, Contributing Olympics Editor
Beijing, China (Sports Network) - Dara Torres is sick of all the questions.
As she gets set to become the first American to swim in five Olympics, the 41- year-old walking, talking topic-of-conversation was urging everyone to move on from speculating about her being a drug cheat.
"I've answered this question at least a thousand times and I think it's getting a little old," Torres said at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
Torres reminded reporters that she is one of the few athletes who has gone beyond what they're expected to do to prove they are clean, including asking to be tested differently by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Her blood and urine samples will be kept in storage for years.
"I really would rather talk about swimming now," said Torres, "because there's nothing else I can say on the issue."
But she had plenty more to say.
Torres, who became the focus of scrutiny when she was the oldest American swimmer to qualify for the Olympics, was prompted later to discuss comments made by an Australian runner who said she was disillusioned about competing in the Olympics because she knew she would have to compete against drug cheats.
"I've had to deal with that issue since I first started competing in the Olympic Games (in 1984) and until they can get testing that is completely fool-proof and be beyond what the people are doing out there as far as testing goes for what they're taking, who knows?" said Torres.
"Unfortunately that's just the way the world is today and it's too bad that some athletes don't have a conscience and think it's OK to do that and think that if they win or do well that they did it the right way.
"So, for those of us who have a conscience, we know we're doing it the right way and there's nothing you can do. They're doing extensive blood testing and urine testing, so we just have to hope that will be good enough."
It still remains to be seen exactly how Torres has managed to get older and faster at the same time, more than a decade after most swimmers would have thrown in the towel on their careers.
She has focused her training on working with weights and strengthening her core while paying increased attention to stretching as well as getting daily massages.
Torres, who has never tested positive for a banned substance, will be competing in at least two events in Beijing: the 50-meter freestyle and the 4x100 meter freestyle relay. She dropped the 100-meter freestyle from her schedule.
She has nine Olympic medals already, including a relay gold in Los Angeles in 1984 and four medals won at the 2000 Games. And she is coming off surgery last November to remove a bone spur responsible for the partial rotator cuff tear in her right shoulder.
"I am looking forward to just standing up and competing," said Torres. "I just want to go out there for those 40-something- year-olds and show that age is just a number."
She's also busy trying to keep herself from sounding like a mom while the younger American swimmers "are bouncing off the walls and full of energy ... even during the day when it's nap time."
"I have to remind myself that I was once them," said Torres.
Her coach, Michael Lohberg, is not in Beijing. He is battling aplastic anemia, a rare and possibly fatal blood disorder in which bone marrow does not produce enough new cells to replenish blood cells.
Torres has spoken to Lohberg since she's been in China and said he's "doing a little better." It was a relief to talk to him, she said, because there were days during his treatment that she couldn't.
"Right now they're trying to figure out why his body rejects transfusions," Torres said. "I think that's the next step. They're also trying to figure out if his sister is a bone marrow match.
"We're just taking this day by day."
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