Old Dara Torres?

I’m delighted that Dara Torres won a spot on the Women’s Olympic Swimming Team. She’s been at this – winning – since she was fifteen, and at forty, she’s already had an illustrious career. Now, her considerable skill seems overshadowed rather than enhanced by two facts about her life – she’s a mother and she’s forty.

Now, it’s true that we don’t have a lot of athletes – especially female athletes – who are over forty. Martina Navratilova and Babe Zacharias Didrikson were the only two I found in an admittedly not-exhaustive Google search. Still, Dara isn’t geriatric yet. And part of me wishes the commentators weren’t making such a fuss over her age.

On the other hand, I think, what a marvelous thing it is that she’s forty. What a great opportunity for reframing concepts about age. Forty isn’t old. It may even be short of the midpoint. I love that Dara Torres certainly doesn’t think that forty is old. Certainly not too old to be a pretty new mother. Certainly not too old to compete and win. 

It’s exciting that we’re little by little getting it that age is just a number. It doesn’t define us. It doesn’t even necessarily limit us.  Omkari Panwar, age 72, delivered twins, a boy and a girl, by Caesarean section last week. Not a choice many of us will make, but it’s exciting to know it’s an option.

Grandma Moses started painting late in life. Many of my friends are creating new businesses in their sixties. Old Dara Torres? I suspect we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!