GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Dara Torres story has never been told quite like this. Not even by Torres, the University of Florida Hall of Famer and ageless swimming phenom.
"Once Upon A Comeback," an SEC Storied documentary detailing Torres' record-setting Gators career and remarkable run of medaling at five different Olympic games, makes its debut Monday night at 9 p.m. on the SEC Network. Twin sister filmmakers Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern Winters, who combined have won 16 Emmys, a Peabody and dozens of other prestigious awards, approached Torres about telling her tale over a year ago.
"They did an incredible job of capturing the essence of my story," Torres, now 53, said Sunday from her home in Delray Beach, Fla. "I'm not just sharing my story to share it. I hope it inspires others."
It's a story that was four different decades in the making and saw Torres step onto Olympic medal stands at the 1988, '92, '96, 2000 and '08 games, with the latter netting her three silver medals at Beijing at the age of 41, making Torres the oldest American ever to medal in swimming.
All told, Torres won nine Southeastern Conference championships — and also was tabbed 1988 SEC Athlete of the Year — and 28 All-America honors, the maximum possible during a collegiate career at Florida. She would go on to win 12 Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze) over her 25-year international career.
The film, of course, returns to Torres's UF roots, where she carved a reputation as a workout warrior; as relentless and driven as any athlete on campus. Those traits are detailed in interviews with the likes of former UF swim coach Skip Foster, U.S. teammate and Gator standout Nicole Haislett, football superstar Emmitt Smith and eight-time Olympic coach Mark Schubert, as well as her 14-year-old daughter Tessa.
For the first time, Torres speaks candidly about her bout with bulimia when she first arrived at Florida by way of Beverly Hills, Calif., and also revisits the hurtful whispers that the longevity of her career — "She was more fit at 41 than she had been at 21," says NBC's Bob Costas — was rooted in performance-enhancing drugs.
"You don't have to be a swimmer to understand some of the bumps in the road I've gone through," she said.
And SEC fans won't have to be Gators to appreciate, if not marvel, at the commitment and work ethic required to come back not once, not twice, but three times, and then achieve stunning, championship results. Or as Schubert puts it in the film: "Dara just left no stone unturned in her later years of her career — nutrition-wise, strength-wise, psychological, physical swimming training — and really had it mapped out with the coaches a program that allowed everything to happen and come together in the right way."
Torres is the sixth SEC Network project to profile greatness within the Gators. The others? Abby Wambach,
Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, Billy Donovan and his 2006-07 back-to-back NCAA champions, and Carlos Alvarez.
Pretty good (and storied) company.
"For me, it's about the journey I took to be the best that I can be," Torres said. "People ask, 'What are you most proud of? What is your favorite medal?' It's not about that. If you had asked me when I was younger I'd probably have given you a different answer. But being older and more mature now, I think I would tell you it's being in the sport so long and overcoming the obstacles along the way."
