奥运神童达拉·托雷斯访问福克斯克罗夫特

托雷斯代表美国队参加了五届夏季奥运会.S. Swimming Team, earning four gold, four silver, and four bronze medals. 她的奥运生涯长达20多年, 来自1984年洛杉矶奥运会, 在那里她17岁就赢得了金牌, 直到2008年北京奥运会, 41岁时，她获得了三枚银牌. Competing at the highest level into her 40s in a sport where most athletes are finished by their early 20s is testament to Dara’s drive to succeed.

“我一直都很有竞争力. I think I was that way coming out of the womb,” 托雷斯 said after her talk. “我相信你要么天生好胜，要么不是. I grew up with four older brothers and we competed in everything, 甚至连餐桌上的位子都没有.”

托雷斯, 谁因为膝盖受伤而用拐杖支撑, spoke comfortably and casually for nearly 40 minutes to a rapt 制革匠图书馆 audience of students and faculty before answering questions. 加州人, 谁现在住在多佛, MA, also visited with students at an informal gathering Monday evening and at a luncheon with athletes Tuesday. 托雷斯 was invited to speak at Foxcroft by the School’s athletic trainer, 露丝·安·艾伦, 谁曾在美国的医务人员.S. 游泳队多次参加比赛.

在上午的会议上, 托雷斯 explained how a desire to move from the gym back into the pool for workouts when she was pregnant ignited her competitive spirit and led to the Olympic team when most of her peers were lounging around their community pools or attending their children’s sporting events. 8月. 17, 2008, 在北京, Dara won a silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle to become the oldest swimming medalist in Olympic history. 这是她在奥运会上赢得的三个冠军之一.

While 托雷斯 was being lauded by the news media for her achievements, 哪怕只差一点点金子也会让她恼火. “I remember squinting to look at the scoreboard to see where I finished. My eyes weren’t the same as when I was 20 years younger,” 托雷斯 said. “I saw that I had the best time of my career [an American record time of 24.07 seconds] and had lost the race by only one one-hundredth of a second to [Britta Steffen of Germany]. I know I should have been elated at my achievement, but I was upset at finishing second. 我的目标是赢得金牌，但我失败了. Competitors are like that; anything less than finishing first is a failure.”

Dara vented her frustration underwater between smiling acknowledgements of the crowd’s appreciation, and she joked at a post-race interview that perhaps she should not have filed her fingernails the night before. 最终, 虽然, she recognized that what she had accomplished was extraordinary, especially as it all came two years after she gave birth to her daughter, 泰.

“It took me some time to get over the fact that I didn’t win that race, but I finally realized that I had given my all and that’s all you can ask of yourself,托雷斯说。, 添加, “我想分享玛丽安·赖特·埃德尔曼的一些东西, 儿童保护基金会的创始人. 她说，‘你没有义务一定要赢. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.“我做到了。. She also said, ‘I'm really grateful to have something that I'm passionate about.’ ”

托雷斯 compared her Olympic experiences and her changing perspective. “I was so excited just being there in 1984 when I was 17 and in my first Olympics,”她说。. “在北京，我以一种非常不同的方式欣赏那里.

“我和其他人一样紧张, 但我意识到这一点, 我比和我比赛的孩子们强壮多了. I had my daughter at home and that was the most important thing for me. 孩子们认为比赛是最重要的事情. I knew that I did all the work to get there, so now I just had to go out and enjoy the moment. 这是一个很大的优势.”

托雷斯也分享了泳池之外的见解. “I believe you can take what you learn from sports and apply it to other aspects of your life,”她说。, noting that she has encouraged her daughter to play sports in part for that reason.

Playing a variety of sports and having other interests in your life, 虽然, 也是因为潜在的无聊和倦怠吗, 说托雷斯, who played basketball and volleyball in high school and even lettered in volleyball at the University of Florida after she had used up her swimming eligibility. “I wasn’t that good but the coach 虽然t my strong work ethic would be good for the team,她回忆道。. “到赛季末，我打了很多比赛.”

在佛罗里达, 托雷斯 won nine Southeastern Conference (SEC) individual championships and 12 relay team titles. Her 12 Olympic medals ties an all-time record for female swimmers shared by Americans Jenny Thompson and Natalie Coughlin.

托雷斯 narrowly missed qualifying for the 2012 Olympics and still swims several times a week, 主要是硕士课程. 她还与几个组织合作，包括 Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation’s Learn-to-Swim initiative.