My 40th high school reunion is coming up this year. I'm 58 years old, have arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, a bad shoulder, two bad hips and a failing memory. Yesterday I was 38 and didn't have these problems, but in the intervening 20 years life occurred.

The reason I say all this is that the recent news of 41 year old swimmer Dara Torres competing in her fifth Olympics has given old guys such as myself reason to smile. Not, of course, because I have any hope of ever making the Olympics (unless sports writing becomes an Olympic sport), but because seeing "old timers" like her succeed simply thrills my rheumatism-filled bones.

And if she can somehow win the gold medal in one or both of her two events, the 50 and 100 meter freestyles, I will literally jump for joy (not too high, naturally, brittle bones and all, you know). After all, the middle age-plus crowd doesn't have that many sports champions to root for (seniors-tour pro golfers and NASCAR racers excepted, of course). As a result, I and the rest of the burgeoning Geritol crowd applaud whenever someone who is supposedly "over the hill" proves the so-called experts wrong and kicks some cocky, whippersnappers' be-hind.

She's doing for real what Sylvester Stallone continues to do in play by bringing back the steroid likes of Rocky and Rambo to settle the pressing matters of the world on the silver screen. A lack of box office receipts shows that people as a whole are getting tired of the Italian Stallion's waxing heroic.

However, the huge majority of press I've seen has been nothing, but positive for Torres. A lot of this has to do with the fact that this story is real whereas Stallone's sagas are nothing more than glorified video games.

But while to many, she has become the new darling of sports, Torres does have her detractors.

"Why doesn't she hang up her swim cap and give others a chance," some young, jealous individuals out there might say. And in response I ask, why should she? If she can continue to do it, more power to her.

She can't help it if her body, training regimen and will to win are such that she can still whip the best young'uns around. And that is exactly what she has continued to do for over 20 years. And if she can do it for another two decades and is vying for a place on the 2028 Olympic swim team, I'll be the first to raise my cane as high as my arthritic shoulders will allow in salute to her achievements.

While it wasn't much, that's my opinion this week, for what it's worth.