Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Anne Coughlin (born August 23, 1982) is an American swimmer and eleven-time Olympic medallist.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Coughlin became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympics and the first woman ever to win a 100 m backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics.[1]

Coughlin's success have earned her the World Swimmer of the Year Award one time and American Swimmer of the Year Award three times. She has won a total of forty-six medals in major international competition, twenty gold, sixteen silver, and ten bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships.

Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin

Coughlin currently lives in Lafayette, California and is of Irish and one quarter Filipino[2] heritage. She was born in Vallejo and went to school at St. Catherine of Siena School from kindergarten through eight grade. She attended Carondelet High School in Concord.

Coughlin first began swimming at the local YMCA when she was only 10 months old. In 1998 at age 15, she became the first swimmer to qualify for the Summer National in all 14 events.[3] Prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics, Coughlin was a student-athlete at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a BA in psychology in 2005. Coughlin won 12 National Collegiate Athletic Association Swimmer of the Year honors in her first three years at Cal.

Coughlin worked as an in-studio host for MSNBC during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

In April 2009, Coughlin married Crow Canyon Sharks swim coach, Ethan Hall.[4] One of Coughlin's favorite hobbies is cooking. During the 2008 Summer Olympics, she was invited to prepare a Chinese-themed dish on the Today show. She has appeared as a judge on Iron Chef America.[5]

Coughlin competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars with season 1 professional champion, Alec Mazo.[6][7] She was eliminated on the fifth episode.