Why aren’t we investigating Dara Torres?
Dara Torres is Tiger Woods biggest fan these days.
The latest Tiger travail is that he used the services of a Canadian doctor who has been linked to “performance-enhancing” drugs, like HGH (human growth hormone) and others.
One of the other athletes who (allegedly) used this doctor’s services? Yup, none other than Ms. Torres.
While everyone seems to be piling on the Tiger implosion, the five-time Olympic swimmer is cruising comfortably under the radar.
There’s no doubt that Torres is an exceptional athlete. You don’t win 12 Olympic medals — eight of which she won after her 30th birthday — without some natural ability. And her training regimen is amazing. But her performance at the Beijing Olympics should have raised some eyebrows.
After all, she was 42 years old and was coming off two major surgeries in eight months. No other individual women’s swimming medalist in 2008 was older than 25. And amazingly, she was posting better swimming runs than when she was in her twenties.
The international governing bodies have allowed Torres to take banned drugs like Symbicort and Proventil to battle her asthma, a condition that conveniently popped up a couple years ago.
But instead of looking into this possibility, the media fawned over her success story and her regimen. The New York Times mentioned the rumors of performance enhancers, but dismissed it just as fast. Newsweek posted helpful hints for other 40-year olds to imitate her success. She was held up as a role model for women everywhere.
To be sure, she has vehemently denied any allegation of performance-enhancers. And she submits herself to the highest testing standards available. But when you use a doctor who is linked with illegal performance-enhancers, those questions have to be asked. Especially when the cheaters are always a step ahead of the testers.
After all, it was only a few years ago that we were so amazed at Roger Clemens’ success at his age, and marveled over his “training regimen.”
If anyone is going to investigate her, it should be the IOC. And how far do we extend the chain of suspicion with this doctor? What if he treated a patient when he was just an intern? Do we go back that far? We still don’t know if all the stories about him are true, and even if they are true if he gave PEDs to all of his patients. The real bottom line is that some people have allowed their love of sports to be derailed by suspecting every athlete of doing something wrong. If it bothers you that much, just move on to something else.