Torres swims to 2 more Olympic silver medals

The 41-year-old missed gold by a hundredth of a second in the 50-meter freestyle.

BEIJING (AP) — Minutes from the race that decides swimming’s fastest woman, Dara Torres was in mother mode. She regaled her Australian and German rivals with tales of giving birth to her daughter two years ago.

Then the 41-year-old swimmer nearly went out and beat them all.

Torres capped her comeback for the middle-aged with two more silver medals Sunday, missing gold by one-hundredth of a second in the 50-meter freestyle.

Her time of 24.07 seconds was a personal best, just behind German Britta Steffen’s winning effort of 24.06.

“I go home extremely thrilled,” Torres said.

She earned silver in all three of her races in Beijing, earning her 12 medals in a career that began as a 17-year-old at the 1984 Olympics in her hometown of Los Angeles. Torres is tied with swimmer Jenny Thompson for most medals ever won by an American woman.

“Dara Torres never ceases to amaze me,” said Mark Schubert, head coach and general manager of the U.S. team. “The only reason she could do this is she’s never been out of shape a day in her life. She loves to train and be fit.”

About 10 minutes after collecting her 50 free medal, Torres rushed back on deck to anchor the U.S. women to a runner-up finish in the 400 medley relay.

“I did this in Sydney, but I was 33 then,” she said, noting the quick turnaround.

Torres bumped into Michael Phelps in the warmdown area between her races.

“Hey, I feel like you today,” she told the eight-time gold medalist.

“You have it easy. You only swim two times,” Phelps teased the woman he calls “Mom.”

Torres dove in for the anchor leg trailing and couldn’t catch Aussie Libby Trickett in a frantic sprint to the wall. But the Americans’ time was the second-fastest in history and Torres’ split set a U.S. record.

“She’s a model for me. I must learn from her,” said Pang Jiaying, who swam against Torres as China earned a relay bronze.

Plenty of weekend warriors found Torres inspiring, flooding her with e-mails marveling at her fitness level. In turn, she fed off the public’s good wishes.

“If it helps anyone else out there who is in their middle aged years, and they put off something they thought they couldn’t do because they were too old or maybe thought that because they have children they can’t balance what they want to do and be a parent, then I’m absolutely thrilled,” she said.