That's Fit

Have you looked at the body of Olympic swimmer Dara Torres lately? I mean really looked at it? Lean, mean, and 12 pounds lighter than she was at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, this 41-year-old medalist and mom of a two-year-old, is in better shape now than she was 20 years ago, at age 21. What exactly has she done to her body to achieve such physical greatness and beat her 1998 Olympic 100m speed by 2.47 seconds? She's worked her butt off, that's what. She's pumped up her weight training regimen by practicing a resistance stretching and flexibility and strength-building program that uses her own force to work out muscles -- while most strength-building exercises involve contracting muscles, her program contracts and stretches muscles during a repetition. It makes her lighter in the water, she says, and makes her stroke more efficient.

Some want to know not what Torres is doing to her body. They want to know what she's putting in her body. Nothing that isn't approved by the USADA, she says. In fact, she switched her asthma medication to a lower dose because it relieves symptoms without increasing lung capacity. She wants no unfair advantage and takes only an amino acid supplement for muscle recovery and strength. Doubt her? Don't. She'll submit to any test available -- urine, hair, DNA -- to prove she's the real deal.

Dara Torres is certainly doing something right. Check her out in the gallery below and see what you think. Then hop over to this article and find out from Carl Foster, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, how exactly Torres is making it as an aging athlete.