Amid all the hype and celebration of Micheal Phelps you might have missed the fact that there were actually women swimmers too. And among those women there were a couple of rather impressive performances and stories.
The one that was actually followed some was that of Dara Torres. At 41 she made her fifth Olympic team and was setting new records. What makes her story more impressive is the fact that she twice took an Olympics off and then came back to make another team. And this time not only did she skip the Athens Olympics, she had a baby. Two years ago she had a daughter and now she's swimming personal best times, that's pretty incredible.
During these games she helped the U.S. win silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. She also won a silver in the 50m freestyle. In that race she missed gold by a hundredth of a second. In the race she also set a new American record. A record she had already reset at the Olympic trials. At 41 winning three silver medals is amazing and setting new records is almost unbelievable. Oh and she's now tied with Jenny Thompson for most medals by a U.S. woman swimmer with 12.
The other overlooked woman was Natalie Coughlin who should she compete in London in 2012 will likely pass Dara and Jenny. At these games Natalie had some impressive firsts of her own. She became the first person to win the 100m backstroke in consecutive Olympics. (Sure Aaron Piersol equaled it later but, she was first.) Natalie also was on those silver medal relay teams and won bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay. On top of those medals she got bronze in the 200m IM and the 100m freestyle. That brings her total for this games to six.
No female swimmer has ever won six medals in a single Olympics. Those six medals bring her total to 11. Two Olympic games and 11 Olympics medals. They may not be all be gold but, it's still impressive. She's participated in 11 Olympic evens, made 11 Olympic finals, and won 11 Olympic medals. That's right folks she is perfect win it comes to medaling at the Olympics.
Congratulations to both these women for their great performances.
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