Biography

Call 1.800.966.1380 to contact Dara Torres booking agent, publicist, manager, pr firm, representative and management company if you would like to hire Dara Torres for a speaker appearance, autograph signing, endorsement deal or corporate event. Here you can find speaker fees, booking fees, costs, availability and schedule information. Olympic gold medalist, Dara Torres, was born on April 15, 1967 in Jupiter, Florida. Torres is the first swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympics: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008. She competed in the 2008 Olympic Games in the 50 meter freestyle, 4×100 medley relay, and 4×100 freestyle relay and won the silver medal in all three of these events.

Dara Torres has won twelve Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze), five of which she won in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that, at age 33, she was the oldest member of the US Olympic Swim Team. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.

On August 1, 2007, at the age of 40 (just 15 months after giving birth to her first child), Torres won gold in the 100 meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, her 14th win at these events. She then followed that up on August 4 by twice breaking her own American record in the 50 m freestyle, 26 years after she first set the American record at just 15 years old.

At age 41, Dara Torres returned to the pool to obtain a spot in her fifth Olympic games, unprecedented for an American female swimmer, especially given the fact that she sat out the 1996 and 2004 Olympic games. In fact, she is the first woman in history to swim in the Olympics past the age of 40.[citation needed] Her Olympic career spans 24 years. On July 5, she qualified for the finals in the 50 m freestyle that were held on July 6. In that semi-final, she broke the American record with a time of 24.38 seconds. On July 6 in the finals she broke that record for the 9th time, setting it at 24.25 seconds and winning the top American women's spot in the 50 m freestyle. Torres' time of 24.25 is .28 seconds off the current world's best in the 50 m, set by Australian Libby Trickett at the Australian Olympic Trials in March.

On July 7, 2008, Torres confirmed that she would be pulling out of 100 m freestyle swim for her time at the Beijing Olympics to focus her efforts on the 50 m freestyle. Lacey Nymeyer took over the position from Torres.

On July 30, 2008, at the U.S. swim team's final training in Singapore, Torres, together with Amanda Beard and Natalie Coughlin were elected captains of the U.S. Olympic women’s swimming team.

Torres won silver on August 10, 2008, at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as the anchor position of the US 4×100 meters women's freestyle relay (the fifth time in five tries she has earned an Olympic medal in that event).

On August 17, 2008 at the age of 41 years and 125 days, Torres won silver in the women's 50 meter freestyle race finishing in American record time of 24.07, 0.01 seconds behind the winner, Britta Steffen. About 35 minutes later, she won another silver medal as part of the American 4×100 m medley relay team. Her 12 Olympic medals tie the all-time medal record for a female Olympic swimmer with fellow American swimmer, Jenny Thompson. Eight of Thompson's medals were gold, compared with Torres' 4. However, Dara has twice as many individual medals (4) as Thompson. Torres' split on the 4×100 medley relay (52.27) is the fastest 100 freestyle split in relay history. The American record in that as a single event is 53.39 seconds as of August 2008.

Dara Torres has worked in television as a reporter and announcer for American networks such as NBC, ESPN, TNT, OLN and Fox News Channel. She now hosts the golf show The Clubhouse, on the Resort Sports Network. She is also an occasional model, having appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1994. In 2005, she was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame has worked in television as a reporter and announcer for American networks such as NBC, ESPN, TNT, OLN and Fox News Channel. She now hosts the golf show The Clubhouse, on the Resort Sports Network. She is also an occasional model, having appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1994. In 2005, she was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.