GLENDALE - Lost in the Michael Phelps story is the success of swimmer Dara Torres.

The 41-year old Torres won two silver medals. She missed gold Saturday night by one one- hundredth of a second.

TODAY’S TMJ4’s Lauren Leamanczyk spoke with women who are inspired by Torres.

Click on the link under related content to see Lauren's interviews.

Talk about a competitor: after winning a silver medal in the relay, Torres said it shows dreams don't have an age limit. Lots of people are taking that to heart.

Sure she's an Olympian with multiple medals, but Torres is also 41 and she's a mom. It’s something she has in common with lots of women who work out at the North Shore Wisconsin Athletic Club.

“It truly is amazing. I mean, look at her. She’s ripped!” Ann Benish said.

Benish swam to stay in shape while she was pregnant. Now, she’s got a role model: a mom, pushing herself to the limits.

“Absolutely. I was inspired by saying, you know, I need to get to the gym more often,” Benish said.

The word “inspire” seems to come up a lot when talking about Torres.

“It’s really inspiring. I think it’s really great when mothers can compete like that,” Patrice Hudson said.

“If you work hard enough and you dream hard enough, anything is possible. So it’s kind of neat watching someone older doing something well,” Tony Kapalczynski said.

Granted, the Olympics isn’t in most of our futures, but Torres is inspiring people to achieve smaller goals. Maybe it’s running a 5K or losing five pounds. Torres shows us that age doesn’t necessarily slow you down.

“I’m sort of inspired to maybe work a little harder. Not necessarily to be in the Olympics, but just to stay fit,”

Torres would be happy to hear that. On her Web site, she says she is doing this for her 2-year-old daughter and to let people know that age is just a number.