So last night I'm watching the Olympics and I got to see Dara Torres in her qualifying race. When she came out of the holding area, she went immediately to one of the judges and started talking. The judge nodded.

The commentators were going crazy, wondering what Dara had told the judge. "No one just walks over to one of the judges!" they kept saying.

Then Dara walked over to the other swimmers and started talking. Again, the commentators were buzzing. "No one ever talks before a race!"

Dara was using her hands, palms down and pressing them up and down as she spoke to the younger swimmers. This was more drama than the commentators could handle and they had NO idea what to say.

Turns out that the swimmer from Sweden had ripped her swimming suit right before she came out and was changing into a new one. Dara was telling the judge and the other swimmers that they were all going to wait for the Swede.

That sent the commentators into a full-blown tizzy, gushing about Dara's sportsmanship. What a display of sportsmanship! The true meaning of the Olympic games!

Well I think the commentators got it all wrong. It wasn't sportsmanship. Well, it might have been partially, but that's not the word for it. The word for it is MOTHERHOOD.

Dara Torres is a mother. By definition that means she takes care of people. Especially younger people. Especially a 16-year-old girl from Sweden who just ripped her suit. No other swimmer would have approached the judge or told the other swimmers they were all going to wait. But Mothers don't care. Mothers make things happen.

Mothers know that sometimes - to get something done - they must be bossy and pushy and bark orders. And when done correctly, people (even Olympic judges) listen.

So the little Swedish girl got to swim in the race and Dara Torres beat her anyway. But I'll bet Dara patted her on the back afterward and asked her about her suit.

Blog, Julie Smith, Saint Louis, Missouri.

Dara Torres won the International Fair Play Award for her action.  Click here. 

Torres decided that all competitors should have a chance to compete and a rule should not stop the competition. Thus, she was willing to go to bat for a fellow competitor to make sure that there was the opportunity for competition to occur.  She won the International Fair Play Award because she wanted "play" to exist above all other values. In this sense, Dara believed that the INTEGRITY of the competition was more important than the rule.  Integrity means wholeness - or the completeness of the individual as they compete.  Thus we can say that even though Dara showed many values in this behavior, her INTEGRITY was the most important value. 

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