Dara Torres nails the inspiration thing

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BEIJING -- Now that Dara Torres, the world’s fastest mom, has seen her quixotic dream to compete in the Olympics at age 41 pay off with three silver medals, she was asked to put in perspective what it all meant.

But it wasn’t what she said that mattered most. It was how she said it.

‘I think I’m going to cry,’ Torres apologized as she attempted to answer.

‘To me, if it helps anyone out there who is in their middle-aged years and has put off what they wanted to do because they thought they were too old or because they have a child and they can’t balance what they want to do with being a parent, then that’s great,’ she said. ‘What I’ve done is show them that you can do it. I’m absolutely thrilled.’

And it could have been better because Torres lost the 50 freestyle Sunday by a fingernail -- one one-hundredth of a second -- to Germany’s Britta Steffen.

‘I gave it my best shot,’ Torres said. ‘I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t have filed my nails last night.’

-- Kevin Baxter