Agless Torres sets U.S. record in 50 freestyle

The 41-year-old will swim two individual events in Beijing and maybe two relays.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Dara Torres already knew she was going to the Olympics.

That’s not good enough anymore.

The 41-year-old Torres won the 50-meter freestyle Sunday night with another American record, giving her the chance to swim two individual events in Beijing.

She’s already done what no one thought possible, returning from her second retirement — and just two years removed from having a child — to reclaim her place as America’s most dominant female sprinter. She’ll be the oldest American ever to swim at the Olympics, but she wants so much more.

“I can’t sit here and lie and say, ‘Oh, I’m just glad I’m going,’ ” said Torres, who again took 2-year-old Tessa to the awards stand before heading off to her fifth Olympics. “I want a medal.”

Having already won the 100 free Friday, Torres got off to the third-slowest start in the most frenetic lap in swimming. But she was in control midway through, touching in 24.25 seconds to eclipse the mark of 24.38 she set the previous night in the semifinals.

Jessica Hardy claimed the second Olympic spot in 24.82, beating Lara Jackson by six-hundredths of a second. Torres has raised the possibility of dropping the 100, worried her body can’t take the grind of two individual events, especially when she’s likely will swim two relays, too.

“I’m hoping to go somewhat fast, because they have girls in the world that are going 24.1 and 23.9. I have five more weeks to try to drop a couple tenths to hopefully be in competition with those girls,” Torres said. “I’m very happy with my time, but I know I have more work to do.”

In the final race of the eight-day meet, Peter Vanderkaay pulled off a major upset by beating U.S. record holder Larsen Jensen and top qualifier Erik Vendt in the 1,500 freestyle.

Jensen set the early pace in swimming’s version of the mile, but he began to tire about two-thirds of the way into the grueling race.

Everyone expected Vendt to challenge, but he apparently wore himself out by swimming the preliminaries Saturday in 14:50.24 — more than 12 seconds faster than anyone else.

Instead, it was Vanderkaay who overtook Jensen and held on to win in 14 minutes, 45.54 seconds, just off Jensen’s national mark of 14:45.29.

“This wasn’t the event I train for primarily, but I’ll take it,” Vanderkaay said.

Jensen took the second Olympic spot in 14:50.80, while Vendt struggled to the wall in fourth at 15:07.78, also trailing Chad La Tourette.

“My effort was there, it’s just that extra something wasn’t,” said Vendt, a silver medalist in the 400 individual medley at the last two Olympics and long one of America’s top distance swimmers. “I was expecting something really good, I felt great in warmup. For some reason I couldn’t get going or couldn’t hold pace. I was kind of surprised.”

Vanderkaay, who trains in Michigan with Michael Phelps, added to his busy Olympic schedule, which will include the 200 and 400 free as well as the 800 free relay. Vendt, also a training partner, will have to be content with a possible relay spot in Beijing.

“I’m just thankful I’m on that team,” Vendt said, “because if I had to end my career on that, I’d be pretty [ticked] off.”

He had hoped to take on Australian Grant Hackett, who holds the world record in the 1,500 free and will be going for his third straight gold in the event at Beijing.

Instead, Vendt will cheer for Vanderkaay and Jensen.