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By
Steve Ginsburg
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five-times Olympian Dara Torres was "doing
fine" after radical knee surgery but was still uncertain if she
will compete at the 2012 London Games.
"It's a long road ahead of me but I'm glad I finally got the
operation over with," the 42-year-old told Reuters Thursday in a
telephone interview from her Boston hospital bed.
Torres, who has won medals at five different Olympics, had two
pieces of cartilage placed into her left knee Tuesday and will be
sidelined for 12-18 months.
"Doctors said it was worse than they expected," said Torres. "It
ended up being a 3 1/2-hour surgery. Instead of transplanting one
cartilage, they had to do two.
"It's the most painful thing I've ever gone through. But I'm
doing fine right now."
Torres, who won three silver medals at the Beijing Games, said
she will probably wait until next August to make a decision on the
London Olympics.
"I'm only two days post-op so it's hard to say how the cartilage
will hold up or if it will," she said.
"I'm hoping that I can at least make the decision of what I want
to do based on how I feel mentally and physically -- not that I
can't to it because of my knee. I'd like the choice."
Torres, who has won 12 Olympic medals, said she would "love to
go for 2012. It would be a lot of fun."
"I'll definitely be the underdog, that's for sure," the
four-time Olympic gold medalist said. "This will be one of the
biggest decisions yet. Having a kid was hard - being a parent and
doing my training.
"But this one is hard on the body. It's going to be quite a
challenge."
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