Homecoming For Silver-Medal Mom

CBS Evening News: Oldest Olympic Swimming Medalist Dara Torres Returns Home

(CBS)  It's an Olympic homecoming today for 41-year-old American swimmer Dara Torres. Last week in Beijing, she became the the oldest swimmer ever to win an Olympic medal. Wednesday in Florida, she went back to being a mom. CBS News' Harry Smith reports.

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Dara Torres reunited this morning with her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Tessa.

They'd been separated for seven weeks as Torres trained for the Beijing Games, in which she won three silver medals.

"For me, my most important place is home and being with my daughter, and, um, I could not get here soon enough," she said.

Dropping off her daughter for her very first day of pre-school, Torres was cheered by the teachers. And she showed off her medals at her home aquatics center.

And then, it was actually back to training.

Torres tells CBS News that she feels like she has "unfinished business."

She lost out on one gold medal by one one-hundredth of a second,

"It doesn't gnaw at me a little, it gnaws at me a lot!" she said, and hinted she's considering swimming at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.

Torres has already signed a $3 million book deal and has a full slate of speeches, including one next month - to the Florida AARP.

[keithle1]

I like her. Class act.

[whiskyrokkr]

You mean to tell me that the US couldn''t find a better,younger swimmer than this lady? We must be hurting for lady swimming talent.

[ajaxrose1]

whiskyrokkr: crawl back into your bottle of booze and shut your pie hole. If younger was automatically better then they would have qualified instead of this gal. She''s freaking awesome, thank you very much. WHY is there ALWAYS someone who just can''t wait to criticize and find fault with everything and everybody? Guess maybe because they''re losers who never have and never will do anything that amounts to much. I say ROCK ON DARA!

[netadmin1-2009]

You don''t need to find a younger better swimmer when you already have one of the best in the world. I am really proud of Dara. I look forward to seeing her in the future if she decides to swim on.

[avigil2]

We should all strive to be the absolute best no matter what age. Dara Torres is quite inspirational.

whiskyrokkr is just a poor pathetic loser. That''s all!