The day Dara won silver was like every other race day except this time she was nervous in a different way. At trials Daras nervousness was more like intense stress. She wanted to succeed not only for herself, but for everyone that supported her. 

This time Dara was nervous, but it was more of an excited nervousness. As we stretched and mashed her, the leg that was free would just start to shake! It was hilarious, and even though it was going on it didnt phase her. She would actually carry on a conversation, smiling the whole time while her leg involuntarily would start to shake! Her mother commented on it and we all had a great laugh at Daras expense. Once we were done with Dara she was off in a flash and ready to take charge.

Below: Here are a sequence of pics right before she swam her part of the relay. If you look closely you can see the intense feeling in Daras face. She almost looks to worried, yet like a true champion she snaps out of it when its time to perform.  

Below: the American womans relay team is introduced!

 Below: you can see the pressure of performing well start to show on Daras face.

Below: How does Dara snap out of it? Well, for one thing she's a professional and for a another, it helps when the President is in the audience cheering the U.S. team on!

 Below: action shots of Dara getting ready to take the bull by the horns and claim her spot in History once more!

Below: and here is the end result of 2 years of extremely hard work!

Below: we have pics of family and friends 

This is Dave, Daras partner in life. He is one of the main reasons Dara is able to follow through with her dream of competeing again. Without his love and support for her this journey would have been extremely difficult and stressful! Thanks Dave, your the best! 

Below: Daras beautiful Mother Mary Lou. As you can see Dara gets her great genetics from her!

Below: Most of the Torres clan

left to right: Daras brother in law John, her mother Mary Lou, her sister Lara, her niece Alegra, her nephew Nicholas, her step-father Ed, and her best friend Tommy

Below: The next generation of athletes in the Torres family? 

Below: and here is the very kind but strict gentleman that kicked us out as soon as the event was over and another started.

Below: pics of Tiananmen square and the Forbidden city 

 Below : entrance to the Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden city you have places to buy souvenirs, you can dress up and take photos, or you can buy artwork from students. 

 Towars all along the courtyard:

 Below: more soldiers

 Below: a view from Tiananmen square

 Below: pics of the inside of the cube. Here is the diving platform. It looks like a toy set!

 Below: Dara mapping out her strategy with her coaches and warming up. Her body is feeling a little tight, so we have upped the training. We mash and stretch her in the morning, and then in the afternoon we mash her again. Its taken a couple of days but she is feeling better. In her own words, " I feel strong in the water, just not snappy".  We shall see on game day, and form prior experience we know she will peak nicely!

 Below: Daras chiseled physique

 Below: Annes toes say "Go DT" and Dara is sporting the Flag!

This is the view from our cab ride to our hotel/dorm room at Beijing Normal University. As you can see there is a heavy haze in the air, although there was no physical sign of air pollution ie. burning lungs. 

So we arrived at the University and we are taken to our rooms. They are standard dorm rooms for support staff and for athletes before they are taken to the Olympic village. Anne and I have yet to see the village, special credentials are needed, although we are set to see it this Sat.  

Outside of the University and all over Beijing the most popular way to get around is by Bicycle. About 99% of the bikes are very old, yet everyone form teenagers to senior citizens use them. 

What can be more important than cheap transportation? 

A bicycle repair shop!

 Now that we have settled in the our rooms, the next step was mapping out how far our dorms were from the area that we were going to stretch Dara at. Anne mapped the area out, and what looked like 10 minute walk turned into an hour and  a half. After a long and hot walk, we finally made it to the "cube"! 

The pics below are of a giant mud looking castle that featured a restaurant and a gym! 

 Below: the first veiw of the birds nest!

 Below: We made it to the cube, finally!

 Ps- there is security everywhere! Apparently there are 40,ooo security people at the Olympics. What is really amazing is that no one is carrying a weapon, even the police, or the soldiers.

Here is a better close up of the cube. Its actually made out a thin plastic material. 

More pics of banners around Beijing-  

We did get to venture out a little in Singapore. We went to the beach at Sentosa Island. It’s like a generic Disney world and they even have a mascot that resembles one of the fishes in the little mermaid or  Finding Nemo….one of those!  The beach was gorgeous and it looks like a great place to vacation except for the view. If you look out into the ocean all you see are freighters and tankers by the dozen and oil refineries. Apparently they are a constant fixture, and the tourist and locals that I met didn’t seem to mind. I thought it was really bizarre, I guess I’m spoiled with the Miami beaches!

Mass transportation was very easy in Singapore. We traveled by train and cabs and we had no problems at all. In fact, the train stations amazed me. The trains also had special doors protecting people from falling into the tracks and from debris flying around. To exit or enter the trains you would need to buy a card similar to a credit card that would have a balance and allow you to enter or leave the terminal. Prices are averaged by how far you travel, and you need to swipe your card when you enter and when you leave the station. When your balance is down to zero you can hand in the card and receive a dollar. The train stations were so clean you could eat off the floor. No one litters and in fact, chewing gum and spitting are illegal. 

We also made it to Chinatown which was a great experience. I was able to get a picture of what it looks like now (in China) and a pic of little china form the Chinese museum so you can compare. We visited a beautiful Buddhist temple and we got to watch dozens of people chant. I was told they chant for up to 8 hours with breaks every half hour. The museum in the temple was gorgeous and the interior of the temple was breathtaking.

 Below: China town in Singapore. Yeah I know, our next stop was Beijing but we had to see what Singapore had to offer!

  Below: the first pic is of housing in China town and the next ppic underneath is from the Buddhist temples museum. Its great to see the comparison of how it has changed.

Below: the Buddhist temple 

 Below: a model of the temple from the museum

Below: entrance to the temple  

Below: Chanting/prayer room  

Below: inside of the temple 

Below: Inside the museum 

Below: Pics of an Indian temple 

 One night I was able to venture out into Little India. That was a culture shock. I was the only fair skinned individual around yet no one stared at me or even acted like it was out of the norm. In fact I was treated very well. I enjoyed a great vegetarian meal in some hole-in-the-wall joint where everyone ate with their hands. The food was amazing and I made friends even though we had no idea what we were saying to each other.

While training Dara was struggling to be upbeat while our friend and Daras coach Michael Lohberg was sick in the hospital. Coach Lohberg was diagnosed recently with aplastic anemia, a disorder that causes bone marrow to shut down. It's a potentially fatal disorder and as of right now Michael is stable. Our prayers are with him and his family.

 Every other day Anne and I would walk to Daras hotel to work on her. It would take about 25 minutes. We didn’t mind considering the weather was sunny and warm everyday!

Although Dara was undr intense stress, I could see that all the rest was doing wonders for her. What people fail to realize is that while in Florida Dara would bust her butt training, then head home to run errands and be a mom. I think she was always running on low energy reserves, so getting lots of sleep and resting was doing wonders for her body. I could see her muscles were getting fuller and the constant practicing of her starts and turns were adding some nice tone to her body. 

Below pic: quad stretch 

 Below pic: Calf stretch while Annes body provides resistance

Below: rotational stretch for the core, lats, and quadratus 

 Below: medial Hamstring stretch

  Check out some of the rotations that we are applying on Daras upper and lower body!

 the top photo is of Anne and I Resistance stretching Dara in internal rotations and underneath we are applying external rotation to take stress out of her shoulders and lats. 

Once we landed in Singapore we were whisked away to a beautiful hotel - The Royal Plaza on Scotts. The rooms were gorgeous and everyone was friendly.

Singapore is nothing like what I expected. To be honest I didn’t know what to expect, but Singapore has every luxury you can imagine and if you like to shop for high priced items then this is the country you should visit! From what I saw that’s about all there is to do in Singapore. It looked like a giant high-end stores strip mall with beautiful trees everywhere you could imagine.

 Prices at the hotels were a little on the high side – as in a pitcher of iced tea (really good iced tea!) goes for $45 and the dinner buffet goes for $50. (Granted it’s Singapore Dollars, but still the exchange rate was only about $1.30 US Dollar to $1 Singapore Dollar so it didn’t help that much!) I have to admit the buffet was absolutely delicious they had everything you could imagine. One of the pics is of a waiter at the hotel. His name is Agus and he is from Malaysia, he was a very cool dude. He works at the Shangri Li hotel if your ever in Singapore tell him Anne and Steve said hi!

Training camp was great in Stanford, we taught a successful intensive training workshop on Resistance stretching, and we even saw a couple of our close friends. While in Stanford there was plenty of behind the scenes work that left us so exhausted that we were actually thrilled with the idea of an 18-hour flight to Singapore. We knew it meant sore neck and backs, but it also promised sleep and a nice active recovery massage with the compex sport!

On Cathay Pacific airlines the seats were very comfortable, we had extensive movie and TV programs.  The flight attendants worked very hard to keep everyone happy, and I don’t think they took a break the entire flight over.

We also received a welcome to Singapore pamphlet that said “ Death to drug traffickers”- that’s a ‘just say no’ program that works. 

Ok, So we are at the Beijing games and the womans U.S. team just scored silver medals! 

So much has happened in the last 2 years that I will never be able to catch up to this moment. Im going to start at the 2008  trials and work my way up to the 2008 games in Beijing. 

Here are a couple of pics of Anne and I mashing Dara out while hooked up to the compex sport machine. Trials were very stressful for the girls. I have never seen Dara  and Anne so nervous. Dara mentioned that she felt like she had to succeed because so many people were supporting her. Anne was nervous because, well Dara and her are twins! I of course was my normal un-emotional self until she won her 100 and then I crashed. I remember her touching the wall, I let out a yell and I could feel myself start to fall apart. It wasn't that I was shocked, hell I knew Dara was going to win every event, it was the stress of having certain individuals doubt Dara. They not only doubted Dara but they doubted us. Dara making the team was the best way to send a clear signal that she is no fluke, and as a team along with her strength coach (Andy O'Brien), her Swimming coaches, her therapists, and her support from fans, friends, and family we are unstoppable!

Below are pics of us preparing Dara for her Resistance Stretching session by mashing her whole body for 45 minutes.