More trials musings

I would have gotten to this entry sooner, but I decided to spend the better part of the middle day of my 3 day weekend rearranging my basement. This was not on a whim, I'd been planning it for a couple months, but for the first time since my main roommate moved out (which was one of the prerequisites because part of the plan involved getting his desk out of the basement), I had the combination of time and motivation required to complete the task. I don't have my digital camera right now (I handed it off to one of my teammates in Thailand and I still haven't bothered to get it back yet) or I'd favor you all with "after" pictures, but they'll come at some point.

Anyhow, it was inevitable given what Dara Torres is doing at age 41 and after a 6 year layoff that someone would start the drug whispers. To be honest, I almost made the suggestion in my entry last night, but I decided to be an optimist on this one (especially since swimming has for the most part avoided the spectre of drugs recently, probably because they made some significant adjustments in response to systemic cheating in East Germany in the 80s, and China in the early 90s) and let it go. But, it is a large and varied media, and someone was bound to say it, and that someone was ESPN's Pat Forde. Overall, I don't have a real problem with it, other than the fact that he couldn't even wait until the next day after her big accomplishment to put it out there. He's right, we're conditioned these days that when some athletic achievement seems too good to be true, it probably is. What I object to, however, is his classification of Torres alongside of Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, Rafeal Palmerio. That kind of grouping misses a very key point. Yes, like those two, Torres has been very vocal in declaring her innocence as those 3 have. However, there's a noteworthy distinction here - Torres has been willing to back up her claims with tests. As Forde acknowledges in his article, Torres (anticipating this kind of response) went to USADA and volunteered for a program that tests more aggressively for doping, via blood and urine tests, than Torres would ordinarily be subject to under the normal swimming testing procedures, and has thus been tested (cleanly) repeatedly. In this day of designer and undetectable drugs, that's not necessarily enough to vindicate her, but it does separate her from the notorious drug cheats whose names Forde so casually invokes. You know, maybe Torres is cheating, I certainly don't know. But I wish we could go back to the day when it took more than just an unlikely performance to start the whispers.

And then, last night I got to see the complete other side of the spectrum of the Dara Torres story, as I was watching the womens 1500m semi-final at the US Track and Field trials. The race featured 16 year old Jordan Hasay, who is heading to the world junior championships later this summer, but is running in the Olympic trials for the experience, with no real expectation of making the Olympic team. She wasn't even expected to advance to the final, but she finished 5th (top 6 advance) in her semi-final heat with a great finish, setting a national high school record in the process. But more than her achievement, it was her post-race interview that caught my attention. I'm sure you've noticed by now I tend to be fairly cynical when it comes to the big name athletes, so anytime I see someone, at any age, who is so clearly unspoiled by some of the uglier sides of athletic competition, I take note. Hasay's interview was full of the most genuine smiles and enthusiasm you'll ever see, totally unscripted, and full of "I'm just so happy, I did so great, I can't believe I made the finals". It was just a rare kind of treat in the midst of a cutthroat world of competition.