Torres will be officially inducted on November 1 at a formal awards dinner held at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. “The Class of 2019 has so many amazing athletes,” she admitted. “Much to my surprise, they called me and told me that I was being inducted and I was absolutely thrilled and honored.”
Particularly impressive about Torres is that she was the first American swimmer to make five teams at the Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008). She has earned four gold, four silver and four bronze medals at the Olympic level. “Once I got a set of each, I realized I was good to go,” she said, with a sweet laugh.
She has taken on the role of Chief Lifestyle and Wellness Officer for the CBD (Cannabidiol) company, where she is helping to educate and empower people to explore natural, plant-based alternatives for health and wellness. “As I was getting older, I found it that it was getting harder to fall asleep, and I was aching more. I tried the sleep oils of CaniBrands and their paste and cream helped me with physical therapy when I was injured, and it helped subside the pain. I really felt a difference and found their products awesome. That’s how I became their Chief Lifestyle and Wellness Officer and global spokesperson,” she said.
Torres is a fitness advocate for women and mothers, and she sees CaniBrands and CBD as a pathway to a better lifestyle and fitness performance when one hits their 40s, 50s and beyond. “There is a big misconception about CBD, and I think people think that all CBD has Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in it, and it doesn’t. I like to educate and inform consumers about the benefits of CBD and how it can be life-changing. The CaniBrands are all-natural, vegan and they are easy to use. Once people research them, I think they will be surprised and they will get rid of the myths about them,” she said.
She noted that CaniBrands makes it easy to take a natural approach to help with daily aches and pain, sleep, focus, energy and all the things that happen for active men and women over the age of 40. These products combine sustainably sourced CBD with a blend of vitamins, nutrients and herbal extracts to support holistic wellness. “Honestly, even my step-dad who is 93, has been using the CaniBrands paste and he has seen a difference. He just loves it and everyone else seems to love it a lot too,” she said.
Her advice for young and aspiring swimmers is for them to “have fun” with what they are doing. “With parents, in regard to burnout, my mom didn’t only make me swim. She introduced me to a wide variety of sports,” she said. “I made sure that I was doing other things too to keep my interests: I played volleyball and basketball as well.”
Digital age of aquatics
Regarding the digital age of swimming, she said, “There is a part of me that wishes that the digital age was around when I was younger, and other times, I say that it’s too bad that it’s around. There are two sides to the coin. There are a lot of pros and cons to it. I have learned to embrace the digital age. I still have a datebook.”
“On the plus side, the digital age makes things faster and easier. When you do get used to it, it makes life a lot easier,” she said. “I know Luke Torres, who has the company called Phlex. They engineered it and created this product and I’ve tried it. It gives you all of the digital information that you need to know like how long it took you to swim the laps and how far you went. In that regard, it is really cool.”
When she swam competitively, she listed the “butterfly” as her personal favorite stroke. “Even though my best was freestyle, I really loved the butterfly, which is the hardest,” she said.
Once she had her daughter, she realized the importance of “balance” since she wanted to keep training. “I had to force myself to find balance once I became a parent,” she said. “That was a difficult thing, but I found what works best for me and my child to achieve that balance.”
Dara Torres defined the word success as follows: “Success is not about your time or place at events. To me, success is doing the best you can do and knowing that you gave it everything that you had.”
To learn more about Torres’ partnership with CaniBrands, check out their official website.
For more information on 12-time Olympic medalist swimmer Dara Torres, visit her official homepage.
