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All eyes will be on in Beijing's Water Cube as he attempts to eclipse

But the 23-year-old American could be forced to share the limelight at the Games of the 29th Olympiad with a team-mate old enough to be his mum, in fact, a team-mate who he indeed calls "mom".

has been breaking records for longer than Phelps has been alive, and at the age of 41, has just become the oldest American swimmer to qualify for an Olympics, and the first to reach a fifth Games.

Torres, who has a two-year old daughter, won the 100m freestyle race at the US trials over the weekend, beating 25-year-old who won bronze in the same race in Athens four years ago, in a time that was just 0.36 seconds outside the world best.

Remarkably, Torres then set a new American record in the 50m freestyle, 26 years after first breaking the record as a 15 year old.

She has decided to drop the 100m to focus on the 50m free and possibly two relays in Beijing.

If you want more perspective on Torres' achievement, she won her first Olympic gold in the 4x100m relay team at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, one year before Phelps was born.

She competed against the likes of British swimmers in 1984 and in 1992.

Three more relay medals followed in 1988 and 92, but she retired after the Barcelona Games.

Torres was 29 when the Atlanta Games came around in 1996 and went to the Games as a spectator, but did not attend the swimming events.

The lure of the pool proved too strong though and she returned for the Sydney Olympics where she won two more relay golds and three individual bronze medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly.

At the age of 33, Torres was the oldest swimmer on the US team but she again quit following the Games,

The Athens Olympics in 2004 were spent commentating and when her daughter Tessa was born, in 2006, her Olympics days appeared over.

But Torres, breastfeeding between events, was still swimming fast and went on to win her 14th US National title in 2007.

For those of you think again. and anyway, with nine Olympic medals to her name, it's not like she has anything to prove.

Throughout this countdown, I'm come across a few athletes who have excelled at their sport for over a decade, one who proved you can compete as a mother, and one other who proved you can compete over seven Olympiad.

But Torres' feat in the pool is truly astonishing, Phelps would have to be breaking national records to qualify for the 2024 Games to match her longevity.

What do you make of her achievements?