By Dr. Buky Chass<\/p>\n
WINGATE INSTITUTE, Israel, Sept. 26. WITH the constant threat of homicide bombings and other acts of terrorism, most invited teams, athletes and coaches have declined to come to Israel lately. <\/p>\n
Not so four-time US Olympian Dara Torres.<\/p>\n
In a one day swim clinic, as part of the High Holidays Sports Clinic at Wingate Institute, Dara gave an exciting, informative three- session clinic here in Israel.<\/p>\n
The 34 year old star swimmer — the most Olympic- medaled Jewish female athlete in the world (Mark Spitz is the top male) — was simply awesome. <\/p>\n
(With a total of nine Olympic medals, Dara ranks second among women in US Olympic history; only Jenny Thompson, with 10, has won more.)<\/p>\n
Dara ran a session on her life story as a swimmer from the age of 7-8 until the epic Sydney Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
A second session at the pool with Israel's elite youth swimmers focused on butterfly and freestyle technique and drills.<\/p>\n
According to all 70 participants, from all over the country, Dara did a superb job in articulating what she had done and learned during her 15 months comeback (after seven years of retirement) with coach Richard Quick at Stanford University.<\/p>\n
Her last session concentrated on her mental preparation for practice and competition while at Stanford. She gave a tremendous tribute to coach Quick and his program at Stanford.<\/p>\n
For the first time Israeli coaches had a chance to learn from a mature, adult athlete, rather than from highly-rated coaches or scientists, who usually come from all over the world for this September Clinic.<\/p>\n
Dara ended her short stay at the clinic by showing her gold medals from the Sydney Games and signing her well-known, 9-medal Speedo autograph cards.<\/p>\n
The organizers have invited her to come back and get more involved with swimming and women's sports in Israel. According to Ms Torres, there is a very good chance that she will revisit Israel in February of 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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