Dara Torres is a 41-year-old-swimmer with a snazzy little haircut who has qualified to compete in the upcoming Olympic games yet again. And good for her annoyingly talented ass, right? Only, strangley, some might suspect that her athletic performance, which has seemed to improve as she ages, might be due to some intervention on her part. People are so cynical. Here, let’s read this excerpt and creep ourselves out:

Torres’ age-defying performance and her achievement as the oldest woman to make an Olympic team could be an inspiring story. It could be a Mom Power moment. It could be utterly enjoyable. [Ed. note: Uh, no. We never enjoy other people’s success.] It could be the best advertisement yet for Speedo’s crazy LZR swimsuit.

But, here in 2008, Torres knew she was diving into a pool contaminated by cheaters and doping and liars and skepticism.

Duh-rama! It gets worse:

So too bad for Torres - who will be training with the rest of the Olympic swim team at Stanford for the next two weeks - if she really is as pure as her darling 2-year-old daughter. Too bad for her if she simply is a genetic freak. Too bad for us if we can’t enjoy her achievement without nasty doubts.

Yeah. Let’s revisit that: “Pure as her 2-year-old daughter.” Um, so. What turned out to be a fairly straightforward story about a fast swimmer who might be cheating turned into something that made us cry a little. While it might be arguably sad that we’re living in what the article’s writer deems an “age of skepticism,” we think it’s a little more disturbing that we live in an “age of everyone believing that because they can type, they can also write.”

Killion: Swimmer Torres’ achievement is hard to believe [Mercury News]