Dara Torres to be guest speaker at the 2023 Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards
The News-Press and Naples Daily News are proud to announce Dara Torres as the special guest speaker at the 2023 Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards, presented by Babcock Ranch, on June 8 at Suncoast Arena. Doors open at 6.
More than 200 high school athletes from across the Collier and Lee County area will be honored. The show will also name players of the year for 25 state-sanctioned sports and include several major awards, including overall Players of the Year, Teams of the Year, Jeff Sommer Memorial Coach of the Year and a Courage Award.
“I am thrilled to host the Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards and celebrate these outstanding student-athletes,” said Torres, tied as the most decorated US female Olympic athlete of all time while competing in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008). “These kids have worked hard to get where they are today, and I am honored to help recognize their dedication and diligence.”
Since her first international race at the age of 14, Torres proved to be far from the average athlete. At the University of Florida, she earned the maximum possible number of 28 NCAA All-American swimming awards. As the first US swimmer to compete in four Olympic Games, she set three World records and won nine Olympic medals, including four gold.
In the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games alone, after a seven-year break from competitive swimming, Dara won gold in the 400 freestyle and 400 medley relay and bronze in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, and the 100 butterfly. After the 2000 Olympics, Dara retired again to start a family, but dove right back into swimming in the 2006 Masters Nationals, where she broke a world record just three weeks after her daughter’s birth. And in August 2007, Torres won another National title and broke her own 7-year-old American record in the 50 freestyle.
Outside of swimming, Torres has made a name for herself as a TV commentator and a print model and was the first athlete to appear in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in 1994. She was a feature correspondent for “Good Morning America", and worked on-air for ESPN, TNT and Fox News Channel including stints on “NHL Cool Shots” and “Fox Sports Sunday.”
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Six-time Olympic coach Michael Lohberg described Torres' drive as "just amazing... To make a run at the Olympics for a 40-year-old mother seems totally out of the question .... But Dara is not measured by normal standards. She is truly an exception, defying several laws of life."
Torres successfully made another comeback to competitive swimming by making her fifth Olympic squad. She won a total of 3 silver medals at Beijing in 2008.
Tickets for the general public and guests of nominated athletes can be purchased at this link.
Nominated athletes can register for their free ticket to the show here, thanks to sponsors.
For more information about the show, to see past winners, and for further information on tickets and registration, visit the Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards home page.
The Southwest Florida High School Awards show is part of the USA TODAY High School Sports Awards, the largest high school sports recognition program in the country.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Dara Torres to speak at the 2023 Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards
