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Can Dara Torres have her own thread?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Lugnuts, Jul 6, 2008.

  1. Lugnuts

    Lugnuts Well-Known Member

    Hot newsy topic, and I didn't want to sift thru all the "our local hometown gal is GREAT" posts or even the Tyson Gay stuff............

    I thought Pat Forde did a nice job of "not being unfair" to Torres in his column.

    My kid is a bit younger than hers. The older you are when you give birth, the more you're irrevocably changed. She's got to be less aerodynamic than she was... that's what doesn't make sense to me.

    Is it possible her asthma meds and surgeries have helped her that much?
     
  2. Dickens Cider

    Dickens Cider New Member

    I don't know. Can she? Wait ... she does! :D
     
  3. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    A variance on "What, no _____ thread?"

    Anyhoo, she oughta kick Ben Johnson and Mark McGwire in the goods. Everything is now suspect.
     
  4. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    She was a world class athlete before childbirth, so I imagine her recovery time is quicker.
    Also, she isn't doing a full range of events like Katie Hoff. She's a freestyle sprinter. She can focus on one thing.
    That said, the questions will follow her. They did eight years ago and that was, as Pat noted, before some surgeries and childbirth and what not.
    It is today's world, like it or not. We've been fooled enough times and now we no longer believe it. Which isn't necessarily fair to the Dara Torres of the world.
     
  5. Lugnuts

    Lugnuts Well-Known Member

    Not wax scientific... But as we approach 40 our estrogen gets depleted. If you give birth in your late 30s/early 40s, the skin is not going to "bounce back" as well because it's depleted of estrogen and collagen. The skin itself would sag more, making her less aerodynamic... Not to mention that organs are physically "moved" during pregnancy, and they never return to exactly the same place they were.

    I'd actually be interested to know if she's on the birth control pill. A high-dose birth control pill would act as hormone replacement therapy.
     
  6. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    Whether your skin is less aerodynamic is sort of irrelevant with these modern swimsuits, Lugs. The material compresses the body and essentially provides a smooth surface. As long as you have muscle tone -- and if you stand next to Torres, you'll see she has better muscle tone than, say, Amanda Beard -- I think the suits would compensate for any of that.

    I don't know what to think about whether or not she's doping. I think we haven't really studied the way pregnancy affects women's bodies as far as it relates to athletic competition. I think one of the things few people want to acknowledge is that coaching was bad in swimming for a lot of years. And training methods were all over the map. It's possible that Torres figured some things out in terms of her stroke and her training, and the fact that she's been a fitness freak her entire life kept her close enough to her peak ability so that when she started training again, it wasn't the huge comeback everyone expected.

    Sprinting is different too. You don't have to train like hell, year round, to go fast. It's technique and talent.

    It's also, I think, unfair to say "Well, no one has ever done this before at her age, so it must be doping."

    Well, for starters, for the last 100 years, swimmers were essentially forced to get a real job at age 22, so no one knows if there could have been a 41-year-old woman dropping time late in her career. Now you can be a professional swimmer, if you want. As I said before on the other thread, no one really questions the fact that Carl Lewis won gold in the long jump at age 35.

    On the other hand, she may just be doping.
     
  7. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    Re: the thread title

    Didn't you mean ... 'needle' instead of 'thread'?

    I guess it all comes out as sewing in the wash.
     
  8. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    None of this accounts for the body trauma of childbirth.

    It makes zero sense.
     
  9. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    Doping or not, she's still a MILF in my book, though I should probably take that discussion to the Anything Goes board.
     
  10. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    Thank you for your non-contribution to this thread.
     
  11. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    Your bizarre skating over childbirth as a 100-percent deleterious happenstance as it pertains to competing in such sports as Olympic swimming or track,,,, talk about non-contribution.

    "We haven't really studied the way pregnancy affects women's bodies as far as it relates to athletic competition."

    Knee-slapping shit.
     
  12. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    The difference between us, Simon, is that I actually follow this shit, whereas you parachute in on every thread with a know-it-all opinion that is backed up up by absolutely nothing other than your own bombast, and so frankly, your contribution speaks for itself.

    I'm glad you have strong opinions about Dara Torres, though, since you probably just figured out who she was a week ago.
     
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