FanHouse Dara Torres

ROME (AP) -- Michael Phelps had every reason to be satisfied after the Beijing Olympics. Yet he kept insisting there was more to do in the pool.

Clearly.

Even coming off his longest layoff and the embarrassment of being photographed inhaling from a marijuana pipe, Phelps turned in another remarkable performance over eight days at the Foro Italico. He completed it Sunday night by helping the U.S. 400-meter medley relay team set the 43rd world record of the fastest meet in history.

Dara Torres, the 42-year-old swimmer who won three silver medals in the Beijing Olympics last summer, is back at it again. Despite squaring off against people sometimes half her age, she continues to dazzle. The latest? She took down Jenny Thompson's six-year-old record in the women's 50-meter butterfly.

This record was achieved in a senior circuit event, so the competition may not have been quite as stiff, but her time was still good enough for the United States record. Even more impressive for Torres, via her own Twitter page, is that she hadn't swam the butterfly since the 2000 Olympics. At all (again, according to her).

Dara Torres was a worldwide story of hope and success during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning medals in the world's most important (some say) sporting event at the absolutely ridiculous age of 41. But, as she is detailing in her new book, "Age Is Just a Number," she did all this while being a mother too.

That's not to say that Torres is focusing on herself in the book though -- her goal is to prove to mothers and, presumably, anyone else, that age is not a deterrent for success. At least that's the impression she gave in a recent interview with Mom Logic.

Dara Torres won three silver medals in Beijing at age 41, serving as an inspiration to middle-aged people everywhere. But she couldn't possibly keep it up through the 2012 Games in London, could she?

Actually, she's not ruling it out. In an appearance on HBO's Costas Now, Torres said flatly that she is not retired, and that she might just be in the pool in London.

"You have to put it in perspective," Torres said. "I am 41. No one in their 40s has swum in the Olympic Games and medaled before."

Dara Torres will just have to come back in 2012 to get that first individual gold medal.

Torres got off to a slow start, but that didn't seem to matter as she powered her way into the lead in the 50 meter freestyle. But in the final five meters, Germany's Britta Steffen managed to out touch her, a la Michael Phelps in the 100 meter butterfly, to win the gold by one-hundredth of a second.

While Torres didn't get her first individual gold, she did set a new American record, and added her 10th Olympic medal--when she won her first gold in 1984, some of her competitors in tonight's race weren't born.

After Dara Torres qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming team at age 41, some questioned whether such an accomplishment was evidence that she is cheating. On the Today Show this morning, Matt Lauer put the question directly to Torres:

"Have you in the past or are you currently taking or using anything that is banned by your sport?" Lauer asked.

"Absolutely not," Torres said. "In fact, I've taken a proactive approach. I went to [the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency] and I met with the CEO there, and said, 'Hey, people are talking about me, they can't believe I'm doing this. I'm an open book. DNA test me, blood test me, urine test me, do whatever you want.' I want to show people I'm clean."

If Torres is a liar, she's as good a liar as she is a swimmer.

We covered the entire U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, click on the tag for all of the coverage.

If Dara Torres had made the Olympic team as a member of a relay team, it would have made for a great story. The 41-year-old swimming great would have made an amazing comeback after her second retirement to earn a fifth trip to the Olympics.

But Torres has gone beyond being just a good story, by winning her second event at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials she's become proof that the impossible may just be possible. Torres set her second American record of the week as she won the 50 meter freestyle, showing that she's swimming better than she ever has before, 24 years after she competed in her first Olympics.

After winning the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials, 41-year-old American swimmer Dara Torres joked that she was too old to read the numbers on the scoreboard that showed her winning time. She wasn't done there:

When told that Michael Phelps had referred to her as "my mom," Torres said:

"I like to refer to it as a big sister to my teammates, although I am as old as some of their parents. I feel like I'm on their level on the one hand. On the other hand I have a lot of experience and I'm not on their level. I take it as a compliment that he refers to me as sort of the mom there, but I don't know if the kids actually think that. Maybe aunt."

As long as Torres is calling her Olympic teammates "the kids," I think it's safe to say that the "mom" comments aren't going away.

We're previewing all of the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trial events.

Women's 50 Freestyle

What to watch for: Comeback "kid", 41-year-old Dara Torres, has already secured herself a trip to Beijing by winning the 100 meter freestyle finals last night. However, Torres is actually BETTER at the 50 meter distance than she is at the 100 so watch for sparks to fly when she hits the water tonight.

What it takes: Torres will be chased by sprinters Kara Lynn Joyce of Georgia, Jessica Hardy, who is already headed to Beijing in the 100 meter breaststroke, and Natalie Coughlin. All three of these women have a chance to chase down a berth on that Olympic team.

Unlikely underdogs: Amanda Weir has yet to make the team in an individual event and has a chance here to do just that.

My prediction: Torres will win herself another spot and she'll be joined by Coughlin.

The 41-year-old American swimmer Dara Torres won the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials, and she credited her training regimen for her success at such an advanced age.

But ESPN.com's Pat Forde is not convinced. Forde thinks that the simplest explanation for a super-human athletic performance is that the athlete is using performance-enhancing drugs. He quotes Torres saying, "Anyone who makes any accusations, I see it as a compliment," and writes that she should "take this column as one long compliment."

The meat of Forde's argument is this:

It shouldn't even be possible for a woman in her 40s.

Which is the sticking point. This is all unprecedented -- and after years of being conned, we've become conditioned to question the unprecedented.

Who swims this well at that age? After having a child? Nobody. Ever.

Who takes six years off and comes back better than ever, lowering her best time in the 100 meters from 54.43 seconds in 2000 to 53.78 Friday night? Nobody. Ever.

Who has shoulder and knee surgery and comes back to whip women half her age less than a year later? Nobody. Ever.

Of course, for as long as sports have existed, we've been marveling at achievements that nobody ever accomplished before. Now we seem to have reached the point where instead of marveling, we scoff.