From legendary Olympic gold medalist Dara Torres comes a motivational, inspirational memoir about staying fit, aging gracefully, and pursuing your dreams. Dara Torres captured the hearts and minds of Americans of all ages when she launched her Olympic comeback as a new mother at the age of forty-one - years after she had retired from competitive swimming and eight years since her last Olympics. When she took three silver medals in Beijing - including a heartbreaking .01-second finish behind the gold medalist in the women's 50-meter freestyle - America loved her all the more for her astonishing achievement and her good-natured acceptance of the results. Now, in Age Is Just a Number, Dara reveals how the dream of an Olympic comeback first came to her - when she was months into her first, hard-won pregnancy. With humor and candor, Dara recounts how she returned to serious training - while nursing her infant daughter and contending with her beloved father's long battle with cancer. Dara talks frankly about diving back in for this comeback; about being an older athlete in a younger athletes' game; about competition, doubt, and belief; about working through pain and uncertainty; and finally - about seizing the moment and, most important, never giving up. A truly self-made legend, her story will resonate with women of all ages - and with anyone daring to entertain a seemingly impossible dream.

DARA TORRES has set three world records and has brought home twelve Olympic medals, including four golds. She is the first American swimmer to have competed in five Olympics. She lives in Florida.

Prologue
I’ve been old before. I was old when I was 27 and I got divorced. I was old when I was 35 and I couldn’t get pregnant. I was really old when I was 39 and my father died. But when I was 41 and I woke up in a dorm in the Olympic Village in Beijing, I didn’t feel
old. I felt merely–and, yes, happily–middle-aged. “The water
doesn’t know how old you are,” I’d been telling anyone who would
listen for the prior two years. Though sometimes, I have to admit,
I would think to myself,Good thing it can’t see my wrinkles.
On the morning of the 50-meter freestyle Olympic finals, I set
my alarm for six o’clock. I’m a type A person, or as some of my
friends call me, type A++. Basically, I’m one of those people who
has to do everything I do to the fullest extent of my ability, as fast
as I can. When I recently moved houses I didn’t sleep until all the
boxes were unpacked and all the pictures hung on the walls. I don’t
like to do anything halfway, and I’d set this crazy goal for myself:
to make my fifth Olympic team as a 41-year-old mother. And the
truth was I didn’t just want to make the team, either. I wanted a
medal. I wanted to win. Along the way, I also wanted to prove to
the world that you don’t have to put an age limit on your dreams,
that the real reason most of us fear middle age is that middle age
is when we give up on ourselves.
It was a pretty crazy thing to be doing, especially under the
circumstances. If you’ve ever had a toddler or watched a parent
you adore die, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Young children
and dying parents are truly exhausting, and I had one of each as I
made my comeback. But I knew in my heart I could succeed–as
long as I left no stone unturned.
The race started at 10 a.m., so I’d worked out my schedule leading
up to the race. I needed to drink my Living Fuel breakfast
shake at 6:15 a.m. so I’d have time to pack my roller bag–two
practice suits, two racing suits, two pairs of goggles, two racing
caps, two towels, and my dress sweats, in case I got a medal–before
I caught the 6:45 a.m. bus over to the Water Cube. I’d then do my
whole routine–wake-up swim, shower, get mashed (a massage
technique done with the feet), do my warm-up swim, get stretched,
and put on my racing suit–all before I headed to the ready room,
where all the swimmers wait before a race. My teammates, I have
to tell you, thought that roller bag was the funniest thing in the
world. They were all 15 to 25 years younger than me, the ages I
was at my first, second, and third Olympics. (I was already beyond
their ages by my fourth.) Their bodies were like noodles, and they
all carried their gear in backpacks. But I’d noticed that backpack
straps made my trapezoid muscles tense up. Swimming fast, for
me, is all about staying loose. So I had a roller bag. If I looked like
a nutty old lady–fine.
The Beijing morning was humid and dark when I left the
Olympic Village. All the other swimmers were probably still asleep.
I think that the only other person awake in the Village was Mark
Schubert, the National team coach of the USA Olympic swim3
ming team. Mark had also been my coach at my first Olympics, 24
years ago. And he’d been my coach at Mission Viejo, where I’d
gone to high school to train at age 16. I love Mark. He’s like my
fairy godfather, constantly dropping into my life at just the right
time, giving me what I need, and then disappearing again. That
morning he’d woken up in the Beijing predawn to help me prepare
for my race. We’d come a long way together. Though he
wasn’t my coach in the months leading up to the Olympics, he’d
taugh

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Excerpted from Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life by Dara Torres, Elizabeth Weil
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