Last week, the Jewish American Hall of Fame announced that its newest inductee is 12-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres. With this, Torres becomes the first swimmer to be recognized by the organization, and the 51st person to be inducted.
Torres is the oldest swimmer to ever compete for the United States Olympic Team, qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games at 41 years-old. That was her fifth Olympic Games, including appearances in 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008, which is the most any female member of Team USA has ever swam in. Throughout her appearances, she earned 4 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze medals, tying her for the most in history with Natalie Coughlin and Jenny Thompson. Torres retired in 2012 after finishing fourth in the 50 freestyle at the Olympic Trials.
Now 53, Torres was inducted into the USOPC Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2019. Additionally, she was inducted into theInternational Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
The Jewish American Hall of Fame was founded in 1969, and became a division of the American Jewish Historical Society in 2001. Since its founding, it has recognized many notable names for their contributions to the Jewish culture, including the father of modern physics Albert Einstein, Supreme Court judges Louis Brandeis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, author Elie Wiesel, and playwright Arthur Miller. Each Hall of Fame inductee is honored with a medal, plated in either silver or bronze, that people can buy as a souvenir. Torres’ medal will be available for purchase later this year.
Thanks for running this news item. Small correction: The Dara Torres medals will be issued by the Jewish-American hall of Fame in bronze, silver and gold-plated silver.
Dara should be in every hall of fame. Truly one of the greatest athletes of the past century. Did you know that she played volleyball for Florida her senior year? Just picked it up I suppose. Amazing!
She isn’t even one of the greatest swimmers of the past century.
Never won an individual Olympic Gold, has 4 individual Olympic medals.
That doesn’t make her not fantastic, I would have killed to be half as succesful as she was when I was still swimming, but she isn’t an all time great swimmer, her longevity just makes her an interesting side note.
Mark Spitz 72 Olympics 7 gold and 7 world records
Mexico 68
Mazal Tov!
Congrats to Dara Torres, a well deserved honor.
(That said, it’s hard to believe that the first Jewish swimmer inducted was anyone but Mark Spitz and his glorious mustache.)
Spitz is listed on the site as a possible future inductee, but surprisingly hasn’t been yet
And Sandy Koufax and Sid Luckmann are also possible future inductees?
Also… Columbus (who is notably neither Jewish nor American) is in there, so yeah.
What? Spitz not in? That’s crazy!