But as I began to research her inspirational story, I discovered that she was not the only older person competing in the games. The oldest to compete in the upcoming Beijing Olympics is actually Hiroshi Hoketsu of Japan, who, at age 67, will be competing on the equestrian team.
Now admittedly, the physical training involved in horse riding is a long way off from swimming, but then Hoketsu is not the only one who has Dara Torres beat in the age category.
- Laurie Lever of Australia is 60 years old, and similar to Hoketsu, will be competing in horse jumping
- Ian Millar of Canada is 61 and will also be competing in horse jumping
- Susan Nattrass, also from Canada, is 57 and will be competing in trap shooting
- Luan Jujie, yet another Canadian, is 50 and will be competing in fencing
- Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, a 49 year old cyclist from France, will be making her 8th Olympic appearance.
- Haile Satayin, who is 53, is a marathon runner from Israel
Many of these athletes will not be training nearly as hard as Dara Torres, but Longo-Ciprelli and Satayin will both be competing in extremely physically demanding events.
Dara Torres is special though, because not only is she competing in a physically demanding event at age 41, she is breaking records and has an excellent chance of winning gold.
That is what makes Dara Torres such an inspirational person. Despite her age, she displays the drive, the determination, and the tenacity to not only compete but to break records. She stands as living proof that age is not a barrier to achieving physical excellence.
And how does she accomplish all that? Many critics have pointed to drugs as a likely explanation for her success, but Torres actually volunteered for a more thorough drug test than the one administered to other competitors.
From a positive psychology point of view, Torres’ accomplishment can be explained like this:
- Surrounded by Excellence – Olympic athletes surround themselves with the best, and research has shown that people actually adopt the behavior of the people around them.
- Goal Setting – Dara set a goal, which was to make it on to the team. Her new goal is to win a medal. If she just said, ‘I want to win gold’, it might have been too daunting of a task, but breaking it up in to achievable pieces is a key step for reaching big goals.
- Motivation – “Torres said she’ll be training every day for the next five weeks, when the Olympics begin, to improve on her times in both freestyle events. She admitted her times here were slower than she’ll need to win a gold medal in Beijing.” That takes a lot of motivation. A good way to stay motivated is to make your goals public too, that way you are accountable to an external standard, rather than just being accountable to yourself.
Dara Torres is proof that many of the barriers between us and our goals are self-imposed. If we can find the will power to cast aside false barriers, there is very little we can’t do.
Further Reading:
- The Starting Line: At the Olympics, Age Is Just a Number by Jeff Klein
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