Torres, 41, swims to two silver medals

Beijing — It was not your typical pre-race peptalk.

“It’s funny,” former Georgia swimmer Kara Lynn Joyce said of her preparation with senior teammate Dara Torres for the women’s 50-meter freestyle finals Sunday morning. “To put things in perspective, she was actually talking to me about childbirth in the ready room.”

It’s not unusual to find mothers as Olympic athletes anymore. But 41-year-old mothers known for speed — that’s another story. Torres, a surprise Olympic team member competing in her fifth Games, won two silver medals in Beijing. In the 50 free, her specialty event, she set an American record Sunday with a time of 24.07, finishing only one one-hundredth of a second behind Australia’s Brittan Steffan.

How remarkable is that? Torres (41) is older than Steffan (24) and bronze medalist Cate Campbell (16) combined.

“A couple of hours before I swam, I called my daughter and she said, ‘Hello, mommy,’” Torres said. “You know, that said it all.”

After stepping off the medal stand, Torres swam the anchor leg of the women’s 4x100 medley team, which finished second to Australia. (Joyce, who finished sixth in the 50 free, also received her second silver medal of this week for swimming a prelim for the team.)

“If all of our younger ones watched how she prepared and how she approached every practice and what she does on the outside, we’d be a better Olympic team,” Georgia and U.S. women’s swim coach Jack Bauerle said. “She’s unbelievable. And that probably happens with age. We all know as you get a little bit older, you have to get smarter.

“I couldn’t have been more impressed with her in camp. She was great for this team. As a head coach, I could appreciate that. She took time for everybody but she also wouldn’t stand for much. She wanted things quiet when she needed her rest. She wanted things to go right. She’s something else. You’ve got to give it to her.”

Regarding how close she came to winning the 50, Torres said, “Maybe I shouldn’t have trimmed my fingernails last night.

“If this helps any one else in their middle years who wants to do something who thinks they’re too old, I’m absolutely thrilled. I had a fabulous time.”

Joyce, who won silver medals on two relay teams, said she has drawn inspiration from Torres, adding: “She’s truly remarkable. It gives me hope for another 20 years.”