Drug questions dog Dara
Dara Torres this morning was dogged by questions about steroid use. She talked with Lisa Dillman about it at Stanford University, where the swim team worked out.
Though Torres had heard questions about drug use before, they've increased in number and volume since the 41-year-old mother qualified for an unprecedented fifth Olympics.
Torres, who hadn't competed in Olympic trials in eight years, can understand the nature of sport in this post-Barry Bonds, post-Marion Jones world.
"Unfortunately, you can't look someone in the eye and say, 'I'm not taking drugs,' " Torres told Dillman. "You have to take action. I've really tried everything I possibly can to take action and prove that I'm clean." Read the rest of what Torres -- who has won nine Olympic medals -- had to say.
Plenty has been written about Torres, including an online story for The Times by our blogger Philip Hersh a few days ago, and a column by Kurt Streeter that looked at athletes who seem to defy belief. Drugs certainly have devastated the sport of track and field, which Helene Elliott wrote about during the trials. And after the Tour de France became enmeshed once again in a drug problem, Hersh weighed in with a blog item today about Lance Armstrong's teammates, while Diane Pucin tackled the subject in a commentary in today's Times.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Dara Torres during a workout at Stanford University on Saturday. Credit: Tony Avelar / Associated Press
Dara Torres and this was one slice of the scene around her Saturday morning at Stanford University. Torres was asked questions along this line, and many others, even before she qualified for an unprecedented fifth Olympics, by winning two individual events at the U.S. swimming trials in Omaha, the 100-meter freestyle and 50 freestyle.
Since then, the steady stream of questions has almost turned into a torrent since she left Nebraska, running from columns on the Internet to commentaries in newspapers, including this one, ranging from carefully couched language to stronger terms expressing suspicion of her ever-improving results.
Torres, who competed in her first trials in eight years, can understand the nature of sport, in this post-Bonds, post-Marion Jones world.
"Unfortunately, you can't look someone in the eye and say, 'I'm not taking drugs,' " said Torres, who dropped the 100 freestyle from her Olympic program. "You have to take action. I've really tried everything I possibly can to take action and prove that I'm clean."
