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Age Is Just A Number: Achieve Your Dreams At Any Stage In Your Life (2009)

by Dara Torres(Favorite Author)

3.61 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0767931904 (ISBN13: 9780767931908)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Crown Archetype

review 1: November 15, 2014Dear Fellow Peers, Age is Just a Number by Dara Torres with Elizabeth Weil is the first biography I have read all year. The book was interesting as it took me through Dara Torres’ career as a swimmer, specifically her last few “comebacks” as she calls them. The story she was told was incredible, however you can tell that she is a professional athlete, not an author. I have to say I was a bit disappointed about the writing level of this book. So yes, the way Torres wrote the book didn’t meet my expectations, but the story she told is worth the read. Throughout the duration of the book, there were many obstacles that Torres had to face. The biggest obstacle that she described in her biography was age, hence the name Age is Just a Number. Not ... moreonly did Torres motivate me as the reader to overcome inevitable obstacles I may face as an athlete, but she also proved that you can pick your dreams back up, even after you thought you had lost them. Or if that doesn’t work, there is always time to make a new dream. Torres is a fabulous example of someone who knows how to get things done, even if that thing is as big as an Olympic medal at over forty years of age. But these dreams don’t come without putting in the work. Torres described the grueling hours of work she put into her workouts everyday, getting up before the sun rose in order to have time for it all, and on top of all that maintaining her relationships with her family and taking care of her daughter. To be honest, I do wish Torres would’ve gone into greater detail of when she was hurting the worst. She seemed to be sugar coating a lot of things, and made it seem as if no workout ever made her want to pass out or just topple over. Taking me as the reader and making me feel her pain she felt would’ve made the overall reading experience better. However I do understand that working to her goal was not easy. She managed to do it all with the help of trainers, coaches, and of course her supporters. Torres describes how it was her fans that always kept her going, and encouraged them to achieve their dreams as well. “Reading those emails gave me that adrenaline surge I normally feel before relays, and it was amplified times ten. For the first time in my life before an individual event, I was not just going out there to swim for myself. I was going out there to swim for everybody who wanted to debunk the conventional wisdom about athletic performance and age. That morning, I came to understand how big dreams work: how they start small, in a single person, but once they take hold, they grow so much larger and so much more powerful than anyone could have guessed.” (Torres 213) Here is where you can really see how much Torres wanted this dream, not only for herself but for all her supporters. She describes how small dreams build up to become bigger than you ever imagined they would. Torres encouraged readers to live up to their dreams no matter how ridiculous they may seem. There’s a first time for everything, including a forty-one year old in her fifth olympics. She took that dream she had, and did her best to prove to herself and every other aging athlete that it could be accomplished. She had a positive outlook on life, and so did those whom she was inspiring. Sincerely,Hannah Santoni
review 2: Amazing athlete obviously. A little annoyed when she took second at some meet and gave the medal away because she wanted to be first. Seriously? I understand being driven and wanting to succeed but really? Appreciated her being able to be a mom and in training. I'm not a swimmer so I was a little lost with a lot of the details but still kept me interested in the story. Enjoyed the info on her training and how she prepared before each comeback. less

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