Let’s include Melanie Roach in our Dara Mama Club. But what’s the Dara Mama Club? Uhm, its a special category we are creating here at The Olympian Blog referring to moms who have qualified or are trying to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. We are naming the club after the first Olympic mom we blogged about, U.S. swimmer Dara Torres.

Above photo shows Melanie Roach with her son Drew who was diagnosed with autism. You can read Melanie’s very touching story and her upcoming attempt to qualify for the Olympics here. We hope she makes it to Beijing. Go Melanie! Go Dara Mamas!

Added Note: Who will win the gold medal race? China or the United States?

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Who says Olympic swimming is only for the young ones? Not Dara Torres. Yeah, the 41 year-old four-time Olympic gold medalist is hoping to earn an Olympic slot during the U.S. qualifying trials this coming July.

If she qualifies, Dara will be the first female swimmer over 40 to compete in the Olympic Games. Go, Dara. Do it for the oldies! [Correction: Dara isn't the first female swimmer over 40 to compete in the Olympics. Canadian Brenda Holmes, then 44 years old, was older than Dara when she competed during the 1972 Munich Games. My apologies for the mistake and thanks to our anonymous commenter for the info.]

In honor of Dara Torres, we have created a blog category we’re calling the Dara Mama Club which refers to athlete moms who qualified or are trying to qualify for Beijing 2008. Check out the other Dara Mama’s here.

Update II: More photos of Dara — from Maxim and the NY Times — here. And we have some pics of Yelena Isinbayeva, another Olympian worth looking at, here.

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