In addition to this, she was holding down a full time job in addition to her swimming career (very few swimmers are paid enough to make swimming their full time career from what I understand) so it was necessary for her to train early in order to be able to get to work etc on time. read more
Swimmers now are going best times through their late 20s and early 30s. Yes, there are some swimmers who truly do peak very young (and they're seldom, if ever, males) but by and large, the most successful swimmers enjoy long careers, far into their 20's, perhaps 30's, and in the very rare case (ahem, Dara Torres) beyond. read more