Heroes in Business - Dara Torres Olympic swimming medalist is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

Dara Torres Olympic swimming medalist is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes radio show amfm. Live from Rio, Dara and David discuss what it takes to be an Olympian, and lessons for children aspiring to be Olympians. Together with other well known Olympians Bart Conner, Nadia Comaneci, Julie Foudy and their children, McDonalds sponsored 100 children from around to walk in the Olympic opening ceremonies in Rio.

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. Now, back to our super host, David Kogan, founder of Alliances. An incredible morning this morning it has been. I'll talk about heroes. We just had Potsy from Happy Days. We had a seven-time lottery grand prize winner sharing the secrets. And an Inc. 500-5000 software company founder who'd been on it four times.

Now with us, we have, I mean, this is just incredible. It's a big deal, I got to tell you, to be qualifying even to get into the Olympics. And it's even a bigger deal to win a medal in the Olympics. But imagine this, to achieve not just one, two, five, ten, but twelve Olympic medals, of which four of those are gold. Now I got to tell you, that's a hero who's dedicated. And now we're here in Rio for the Summer Olympics, and we have Dara Torres. She's a 12-time Olympic medalist, Team USA Olympic swimming.

I got to ask you, though, Dara, tell us how much is mental conditioning versus physical conditioning, and is there really one more that's important than the other? Hi. I don't necessarily know if one is more important than the other. Obviously you need to do the physical training to get to the point where you can compete with the top athletes in the world, but then once you get to the big game like the Olympic Games or Olympic Trials, you have to mentally be prepared and mentally be tough and know how to deal with pressure. Now, this is great because the McDonald's Olympic Kids Program, which by the way, listeners, you can go ahead and follow

McDonald's on Facebook. You could use also the hashtag friends win, all right, to be able to get more information about Dara and everything that's going on with the Olympics. But the Olympic Kids Program is sending 100 kids from around the world to Rio to take part in the opening series, ceremonies. What a huge big deal. And you, along with other notable Olympians like Nadia, Bart, Julie Faudy, are serving as ambassadors. Now, you're the oldest swimmer ever to have earned a place in the

U.S. Olympic team. You're on the block now, I've got to ask you, and you're waiting to hear the sound that will launch you into the water. How do you handle the butterflies? What's going through your head? What's gone through your head before you're ready to just go and start? Well the good thing is that everyone has the butterflies, so it's not like you're alone. It's just a matter of how you deal with it. And it's funny because everyone, at least in 2008, when I was going for gold in Beijing at 41 and having a kid, everyone kept talking about my age. And I'll never forget the moment when you walk into what's called the ready room, where you have to be 20 minutes before you swim and your fellow competitors are in that room, so there's eight of us in there.

And it's so quiet, you can basically hear a pin drop. And when I look around that room, I thought to myself, wow, you know, everyone's making such a big deal of my age, but age is such an advantage to me right now because I know what to expect. I have butterflies like them, but I know how to handle the pressure. And I try not to think too much before I go up on the starting blocks. I feel like if I did all the work up to that point that everything in practice that I was supposed to do that I should enjoy and not think about it not visualize not do any of that everyone's different visualizing

is fine for other people but I feel like I just want to be in the moment enjoy the moment and and swim my race and have fun I mean that's that is absolutely great and I mean to be a handful of of Olympians to earn at least one medal in each of five Olympics to which you've competed in itself is just remarkable. And we're here with you and your daughter, Tessa, in Rio. Now, if you were to turn to your daughter now or the other hundred children that McDonald's has helped kids from around the world come to the Olympics, what do you think is the most significant advice that you could share with them that they dream perhaps someday being able to be in the Olympics,

let alone win one of the medals? What advice could you share with them? I think the biggest thing that I tell kids is just do the best you can. I mean, when I swam in Beijing, and I missed the gold medal by 100th of a second, I thought the rest of my life, I'm going to be thinking about what could I have done to win that that gold medal? I mean, 100th of a second, you can't even blink that fast. But I try to tell the kids is, is, you know, if you do the best you can, there's nothing else you can do. So whatever place you get or whatever, you know, meet you

qualify for or competition you're in, if you gave it your all, that's all that can be expected. And we're here with Dara Torres in Rio, 12-time Olympic medal. Are you a hero? Are you a hero? Go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Now, you're also the first, I mean, you're the first of so many. First elite swimmer to model swimwear in the iconic Sports Illustrated swimsuit. What about the first time that you went

swimming? I mean, did you ever think that it would become so much part of your life? No, I didn't. I was very much a tomboy and grew up with four older brothers, and whatever they would do, I would do. And I love sports just in general, but my brothers swam, and my mom used to take me to the pool with them, and I'd be running around the bleachers and had so much energy. My mom was like, all right, I need to put you in the pool to get rid of some of this energy that you have, this pent-up energy. So that's how I kind of got into swimming. I never in my wildest dreams, I didn't even know what an Olympics was when I first started at seven years old.

So, you know, it was all kind of new to me. But when I kind of started swimming fast and started breaking some records, then I thought, well, you know, it would be really cool to be in the Olympics. And that was hard because in 1980 I was about 12 years old, 13 years old, and wanted to watch the Olympics. But yet the U.S. had boycotted. So I didn't really get an idea of how incredible it was to be there representing the United States until I actually went in 1984. You know how many people are looking up to you? I mean, a ton. And so tell us a little bit about the McDonald's Olympic Kids Program and really what a huge honor it is to be, you know,

for about 100 kids from around the world gathering. Tell us about that. Yeah, you know what, it's really an amazing program, and I know my daughter's honored to be here on behalf of McDonald's. And the fact that they flew in 100 kids for this Olympic Kids Program and having them participate in opening ceremonies is, you know, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And they really want to get across that you can make friends elsewhere,

not just in your city, you know, from around the world. And that's one of the things as an athlete we experience when we get to the Olympic Village and being there with the best athletes in the world from all over the world. It's just, you know, you make life at something like an Olympic Games. And these kids are experiencing this too. My daughter, when we got here yesterday, she went into the playroom where all the other McDonald's kids were and just right away made friends

and was so excited and had the best day yesterday. I mean, it has to just be incredible for her and for you. I mean, to now be there right with your daughter and surrounded by so many incredible people. Again, to find out additional information, follow McDonald's on Facebook. Thank you so much to McDonald's for, you know, sponsoring and putting this together. Also, too, is that you can go to Friends Win. So it's FriendsWin on Twitter. But just absolutely amazing. And Dara, it is incredible being in Rio with you and with so many things that are going on here.

Someone who has achieved so much, pretty much a lifetime accomplishment, and only a handful of Olympians to earn medals, that's right, in five different games. And a total of 12 Olympic medals, of which four are our gold, is certainly our winner. And today's winner today is Dara Torres, the hero. Thank you so much again. Follow McDonald's on Facebook, Twitter, Friends Win. Dara, please continue to represent the U.S. You're doing incredible things.

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