Torres Has to Settle For Silver

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.
As amazing as Michael Phelps run for eight medals has been, the most unfathomable part of the swimming competition at the Olympics has been, and will be Torres.

Phelps has proven that it's possible to equal or better everything Mark Spitz did, and eventually we may have another swimmer who is as heads and shoulders beyond everyone else. Like Bob Beamon's long jump in 1968, or Babe Ruth's dominance, even the greatest eventually see someone eclipse what they did.

But it's hard to imagine we'll find another 41-year-old leaving the rest of the world behind, in a sport where 30-year-olds are usually on the way to retirement because they just don't have the speed to compete anymore.

But Torres is a one-of-a-kind, and hey, if she can do what she's doing at 41, who says she can't do it at 45, or 49 for that matter.