'The 'Dara Torres Show' was really good and the way Jason Lezak won that 100 in the relay was the most impressive swim ever. A lot of people are calling.'

Robert Strauss

It's barely 5:30 a.m. The sky is as black as the bottom of the sea and it's raining dime-size drops.

To Gabriel Hildago, these are perfectly acceptable conditions to start his regular morning swim: 4,000 yards, or 160 laps. He'll do this at least four more times this week -- all before 7 a.m.

''Last night I slept five hours but I'm here, '' said Hidalgo, 35, a regular at the pool at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, which hosts Miami Swimming, one of several Masters swim programs in South Florida.

``The days I swim I'm more awake than the days I don't swim. It definitely gets your day started.''

Call it the Dara Torres Phenomenon. Since the 41-year-old five-time Olympian won three silver medals last month in Beijing, Masters swimming programs have become trendy. Begun in 1970 as a way to organize adult swimming competitions, the training sessions are open to anyone 18 and older and are as much about competing as camaraderie.

The Coral Springs Aquatic Complex, where Parkland resident Torres had trained, has witnessed a 15 to 20 percent increase in attendance in July and August, says Masters coach Chris Jackson.

'I believe Dara Torres' and Jason Lezak's swims will increase numbers of older swimmers -- 30-plus -- wanting to make a comeback and compete at a high level. They have proven that, with specific training, it can be done.''

Lezak, at 32 the oldest male on the U.S. Olympics swim team, overtook Alain Bernard, the French swimmer who held the world record, in the anchor leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay. His time -- the fastest relay split in history -- gave the U.S. team the victory and helped teammate Michael Phelps secure his second of eight golds.

Sure enough, ''We have been getting a lot of calls from people with an interest in getting started,'' says Andy de Angulo, head coach of Miami Swimming, the Masters program run at Ransom's 25-yard pool.

'The `Dara Torres Show' was really good and the way Lezak won that 100 in the relay was the most impressive swim ever,'' says Swim Gym founder and 1972 Olympic swimmer Robert Strauss, who coaches the Masters program at the Miami Rowing Club on Key Biscayne. ``A lot of people are calling, but that always happens [after] the Olympics.''

Even without the Olympics boost, the number of registered Masters swimmers has steadily grown this decade, said Tracy Grilli, office administrator for United States Masters Swimming (USMS), the sport's governing body.

Florida had 1,673 registered Master swimmers in 2007, compared with 1,371 in 1997. The overall nationwide total -- 44,135 -- is nearly 10,000 greater than it was a decade ago.

Masters swimming is an organized program of lap swimming that offers technical instruction in the four basic swim strokes -- butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle. Many of the swimmers compete in local and international meets; the Annual World Masters Championships, for instance, have been held in Brisbane, Australia.

For those seeking to reclaim their glory from their high school or college swim team days, it's not a quick dip.

''It takes two years to learn to swim and two years to learn to train,'' said Strauss, 56, who competed in the same Olympics as Mark Spitz. Strauss swam for the Mexican team.

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