In her historic attempt to become the first swimmer older than 40 to compete in the Olympics, Torres has devoted herself to overcoming age. She hired a team of experts to facilitate her comeback: two physical therapists; two masseurs; a strength coach; a nanny; a sprinting coach; a head coach. She special-orders food from an organic company in Tampa.
The holistic approach yielded surreal results again Wednesday. Torres, a nine-time Olympic medal winner who first competed in the 1984 Games, won the 100-meter freestyle in 54.45 seconds, outracing favorites Dana Vollmer and Amanda Weir. Less than 15 months after launching her comeback with aspirations of making an Olympic relay team, Torres has emerged as a threat to qualify – and possibly even medal – in the individual freestyle sprints.
“Her comeback is just mind-boggling,” said Michael Lohberg, Torres’s coach in Coral Springs, Fla. “I don’t think people can actually comprehend what’s happening here. It hasn’t happened before and it probably won’t happen again. A 40-year-old who hasn’t been swimming for years should never go this fast.”
To be honest, I think that Kent Bostick making the Olympic team at age 43 is/was more impressive. Why? Because 1) from an exercise performance perspective, men appear to age more rapidly and/or starting earlier than women, and 2) cycling requires far, far less in the way of motor skills than swimming, which in turns means that there’s much less one can do to compensate for, e.g., any age-related decline in VO2max.
Of course, on the flip side - get it? - you could argue that the talent pool is a lot deeper in than in cycling, at least in the US…
“from an exercise performance perspective, men appear to age more rapidly and/or starting earlier than women”
Hmmm, you have any theories or aware of any studies as to why?
There are studies showing that VO2max tends to decline more rapidly with age in men compared to women. As for theories, yeah, I have one - but it’s really only a theory.
Kent’s decline wasn’t showing at National Championships. The ride he did in his AG crit was pretty impressive. I’d love to know where he stands now VO2 max wise compared to the Shaklee days. He gives hope to us “young” guys.
-HWM www.slopesports.com