Way back in 1988, back when I was a wee junior in high school, I had a thing for Olympic swimmer Dara Torres.  Watching the Seoul Olympics on what seemed like a 36-hour delay, she was just all that was right with womanhood.  And then I realized I would never meet her, and went back to oggling Sandy Fischer (name changed to protect the much more innocent than I wished) in trigonometry class.

Fast forward to 2008, where Torres is competing in her fifth Olympics at age 41, in a sport where most participants are over-the-hill at 25.  Dara has had to go through an unbelievably rigorous training program to get ready for the Beijing games, as chronicled in great detail by the New York Times.

But, as she was preparing for last night's 4x100 freestyle relay finals (which the U.S. took silver in), what I noticed most about her was not her swimming prowess, but...well, her downright dude-ish look.  Not even so much her body (which so far as any tests have shown, is free of PED's), as much as her face.

Now, I'd love to show you pictures from the event, but NBC in its infinite wisdom has decided to lock down all pictures and video from the Olympics (because God forbid anyone might see a picture of an Olympic event and develop an interest in the games - I swear it's going to be a fantastic day when NBC finally understands the internet).  So I can only link to a photo gallery with some press pictures - she's picture #2.

However, here's what she looked like in a Maxim photo shoot a few years ago.

...and here's a pic from the Times article...

Yikes.  It should be noted, however, that these pictures were taken prior to her WWE title match against Batista, which she won by disqualification after outside interference from Triple H.

Just For Fun, Olympics dara torres