Olympic Swimmer Dara Torres and NASCAR Prodigy on E:60 Tuesday, May 6

The next edition of ESPN’s prime-time newsmagazine E:60 on Tuesday, May 6 at 7 p.m. ET, will feature:

• A profile of Dara Torres as she trains for a U.S. record fifth Olympics at 41 and a mother of a two-year-old child;
• The story of 14-year-old Christian Pahud and a driver development school that is raising the next generation of NASCAR stars; and
• An update on backyard brawler turned mixed martial arts fighter Kimbo Slice.

Dara Torres

Dara Torres won her first Olympic medal nearly a quarter century ago at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. She retired from the sport after the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she became the first American to swim in four Olympics.  But during the pregnancy of her first child, Tessa, now 2, she jumped back into the pool to get some exercise and found the competitive juices flowing again.  Now she’s trying to make her fifth Olympic team at age 41.

She’s an odds-on favorite, having set the American record in the 50-meter freestyle last year, which would make this mother one of the most inspirational stories of the upcoming Beijing Olympics. But she knows that in the era of BALCO, Barry Bonds and Marion Jones, her accomplishments are met with the inevitable question: Is she clean?  In a revealing interview, Torres sits down with E:60 correspondent Tom Farrey to talk about the unusual lengths she is going to prove her innocence even as she trains for the upcoming U.S. Olympic trials and her shot at history.

“I’m telling you right now to your eyes that I’m not taking (performance-enhancing drugs), but I know that other people have done that and have lied, so I know that’s not good enough.” – Dara Torres.

Click http://espnmediazone.com/press_kits/E60/videohub.html  to watch the Dara Torres story.

NASCAR 101

At age 14, Christian Pahud is too young to carry a learner’s permit, let alone a driver’s license.  But Pahud wants to become a NASCAR driver, and he and his family are intent on making that dream come true.  Last year the Pahuds moved from Dayton, Ohio, to Harrisburg, N.C., hoping to live closer to their son’s goal of becoming a NASCAR driver.  

Along with other children, some as young as 12, Christian Pahud is attending a driver development school in Concord, N.C.  The kids are taught not only driving skills but social skills – how to handle both the media and the pressure that comes with being in the spotlight.  E:60 correspondent Michael Smith, follows Pahud and his family as they pursue his ambition. 

“I’ve never really had dreams to be a football player or a firefighter or a policeman.  I’ve always just wanted to be a racer.” – Christian Pahud.

Kimbo Slice

His real name is Kevin Ferguson.  That may be the only indisputable fact known about the man called Kimbo Slice, who overnight is catapulting from a B-list bare-knuckle backyard brawler to one-name mixed martial arts phenomenon.

Kimbo Slice says he started fighting at age 13 in his hometown of Miami. He later parlayed his job as a bouncer into fighter-for-hire, appearing in underground backyard brawls.  When his fights began showing up on Internet sites, a star was born.  Correspondent Rachel Nichols updates an E:60 exclusive report on Kimbo Slice as he prepares for the first ever primetime mixed martial art fight Saturday, May 31.

“Kimbo is going to be an international star.  He is going to be the guy that we took from the Internet, from a computer on my desk, into stardom.” – Gary Shaw, president of Elite XC, a talent agency which signed Kimbo last year to a long term contract to appear in professional mixed martial arts fights.

Click http://espnmediazone.com/press_kits/E60 for releases, correspondents and executive production team bios and video clips.  For complete E:60 features and expanded versions of the reporter-producer meetings, click http://www.e60.com

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