Torres triumphs in 100m freestyle trials

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Dara Torres has booked her place on a fifth Olympic team at the age of 41 with an unlikely triumph in the women's 100m freestyle at the US Olympic swimming trials.

"I'm shocked," said Torres.

"I don't think it's hit me yet that I made my fifth Olympic team."

It's not the first time Torres has come out of retirement to earn an Olympic berth.

The swimmer who competed in her first Games at Los Angeles in 1984, swam in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992 before retiring, then came back to earn a spot on the team for the 2000 Sydney Games - where she won five of her nine career Olympic medals.

This time she comes back as a mother, and she carried her two-year-old daughter, Tessa, in her arms on an emotional victory walk around the pool on Friday night.

"I was thinking about my father, who passed away a year and a half ago, thinking about my daughter," Torres said.

"I had to sit down for a minute to gather my emotions."

Torres turned with the lead and held on to touch in 53.78, with Natalie Coughlin second in 53.83.

Torres said it took her a moment to see that she had won.

"I couldn't see the scoreboard," she said. "It was kind of blurry. They need to make the numbers bigger for people my age."

Michael Phelps, the 23-year-old superstar of the US team, quipped that he had dubbed Torres his mom.

"She's 41 right, 41 with a kid?" Phelps said as coach Bob Bowman admonished him not to sound quite so incredulous.

"I like to refer to it as big sister to my teammates," Torres said. "Although I am as old as some of their parents."

Torres said she wasn't sure she would swim the 100m individual event in Beijing. If she qualifies for the 50m free at the weekend, she might opt for that instead as a better medal opportunity, along with the relay.

"I won't decide anything until I swim the 50," Torres said. "My body is pretty beat up. The 50 is going to be all about guts."

But what Torres has lost on the physical side she has gained on the mental, and it stood her in good stead on Friday.

"I think tonight was all mental," she said. "I knew it was going to be about my head and my heart."