Torres says tests to prove great feat not drug cheat

By Steve Keating

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Dara Torres, fearful she will be branded a drug cheat rather than an Olympic great, is under-going unprecedented drug-testing as she bids to earn a trip to her fifth Games at this week's U.S. swimming trials.

Torres is attempting to qualify in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle, and if she does the 41-year-old mother will become the oldest female swimmer to compete at the Games.

But Torres, who won the first of nine Olympic medals at Los Angeles in 1984 before Michael Phelps was born, said on Tuesday she had heard the whispers that her longevity and success had been helped by performance-enhancing drugs.

"Unfortunately athletes in the past have sat here and looked everyone in the eye and said, 'I have not taken drugs' and now they're in jail or under indictment," Torres told reporters.

"Unfortunately, now you are guilty until proven innocent and that's why I stepped up and asked to be tested.

"I could sit here and tell all you guys I'm not doping but I have to prove it now."

If Torres does make the squad it will be her first Olympics since the 2000 Games in Sydney, where at 33 she became the oldest U.S. swimmer to win a gold medal.

After ending a six-year retirement by swimming in masters events, she has steadily climbed up the rankings and underlined her Olympic credentials last year when she broke the American record in the 50m free.

Determined to make sure her achievements would not be tainted, Torres and her coach Michael Lohberg approached the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and pleaded with them to test her as often as possible.

"When I started to swim really fast times, Michael and I sat down and thought, 'OK now people are going to start talking'," said Torres, who also volunteered to be included in a more extensive testing program.

"When we were in Colorado Springs in September to do some training I met with (USADA general counsel) Travis Tygart and told him I wanted to be tested.

"I said, I want to be an open book, you can DNA test me, blood test me, urine test me; whatever you want.

"I want people to know that I am doing this right. That I am 41-years-old and I am doing this and I'm clean.

"I swam against swimmers who were dirty my whole life. It is something I would not do.

"I need to do this, I need to prove that a 41-year-old is doing this clean and doing this the right way."