Dara Torres said she plans to have major surgery on her arthritic left knee at the end of the summer.
Torres, 42, said Wednesday that she might not swim the 100-meter freestyle at next week’s U.S. national championships, partly because it’s painful to do a flip turn. She expects to compete in the 50 free, which doesn’t require a turn.
Torres, who won three silver medals at last year’s Beijing Olympics, said she has no cartilage left in the knee and that it swelled up badly when she practiced a few starts Tuesday. She has been unable to do kick sets or weight-training that puts stress on the knee.
“It hurts some days to walk up and down the stairs,” Torres said. “I need my everyday life back.”
She’ll have another procedure after the world championships — assuming she qualifies at nationals. Then, if the knee fully heals, she again must make a decision about whether to continue competing.
• Spain’s Aschwin Wildeboer Faber set a world record in the 100-meter backstroke with a 52.38-second leg in the 4×100 medley relay final at the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy. Faber’s time beat American Aaron Peirsol‘s 52.54 mark set in the Beijing Olympics.
Florida State pleads for leniency
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State claims it’s unfair to take victories off the individual records of football coach Bobby Bowden and other coaches and athletes who had no role in an academic cheating scandal.
In an appeal to the NCAA, the university argued a proposal to strip the school, its coaches and athletes of victories in several sports is too harsh and should be reversed. If not, the penalty would cost Bowden up to 14 wins and give him little chance of catching Penn State’s Joe Paterno in their race to be major college football’s winningest coach. Paterno has 383 wins, just one more than Bowden.
The case goes to an infractions appeal committee, which is expected to hold a hearing this year.
Brazil unseats Spain atop soccer rankings
ZURICH — Brazil ended Spain’s one-year reign as the world’s top soccer team and the United States moved up two spots to No. 12, the highest ranking for the Americans in three years.
The FIFA rankings reflected last month’s Confederations Cup, where Brazil rallied from a two- goal deficit to beat the U.S. 3-2 in Sunday’s final. Spain, upset by the U.S. 2-0 last week, slipped to second. Netherlands fell one spot to third, Italy stayed fourth and Germany slipped two places to fifth.
Footnotes.
Calvin Borel is out as the rider of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird after the jockey and trainer Chip Woolley could not agree on a long-term commitment.
• The Los Angeles Galaxy acquired forward Alecko Eskandarian from Chivas USA in exchange for allocation money and a conditional 2010 draft pick.
• Candace Parker returned to practice with the Los Angeles Sparks 1 1/2 months after giving birth to her first child. However, coach Michael Cooper said it’s unlikely Parker will play Sunday against Phoenix, which beat the Seattle Storm 93-81.
The Associated Press
