Swimmer Torres hopes to silence doubters

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

OMAHA, Nebraska (AFP) — Swimmer Dara Torres, bidding to make a fifth Olympic team 24 years after winning gold in Los Angeles, knows success will be a cause for suspicion in some quarters as well as celebration.

Torres, 41 and the mother of a two-year-old daughter, will swim the 100m and 50m freestyles at the US Olympic swimming trials this week, vying to secure at the very least a relay spot and, if all goes well, an individual berth for the Beijing Games.

It's an attempt at yet another comeback in the wake of the one she pulled off in 2000, when she came out of retirement after seven years away from the sport and won two relay golds and three individual bronze medals in Sydney.

But in the wake of the BALCO steroid distribution scandal, which has caught...