Natalie Coughlin observations [Archive]

londoner62

08-08-2004, 07:46 PM

Sorry Matt et all, I didn't realise.

From the Mercury News, San Francisco

Four years ago, Natalie Coughlin left youth swimming, a few laps from becoming another teenage burnout in a sport that's tough on its young.

At the time, Coughlin couldn't have guessed what swimming would make her: the Bay Area's most visible Olympian heading to the Athens Games.

Beginning Saturday, Coughlin will attempt to become the first U.S. woman to win five gold medals in swimming in one Olympics. She has been billed as the female counterpart to Michael Phelps, who will try to eclipse Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in an Olympics.

``Natalie is the cornerstone of the U.S. team and will carry a big load,'' said Stanford Coach Richard Quick, an assistant with the women's Olympic squad.

With a radiant smile, Coughlin has posed for Glamour, Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and Time. But don't ask her to embrace the cover girl image -- she would rather blend into the background. She is the nation's most versatile swimmer since Tracy Caulkins in the 1980s and could have tried to qualify in five individual Olympic events. Instead, she chose only the 100-meter backstroke and the 100 freestyle so she would have enough energy for three relays.

Even as Coughlin greets an adoring public in a polished, understated manner, she does not seem entirely comfortable. She has received her share of pre-Olympic publicity, but she will divulge only so much -- the intricacies of a swim stroke, the love of gourmet cooking.

``She is very professional on the surface and holds her cards pretty close,'' said Tom McCook, a Pilates instructor who has helped transform Coughlin's training this year.

In comparing herself to the highly marketed Phelps, Coughlin said, ``It's good I'm not getting a lot of attention. I don't do as well with it.''

Illness strikes

Perhaps she hesitates because, as good as she is, swimming is fickle. Last year, Coughlin came down with a 103-degree fever at the world championships in Barcelona and failed to reach the final in her signature race -- the 100 backstroke.

In March, Coughlin lost her final college race, the 200 backstroke, at the NCAA championships. Before the defeat she had a 61-0 dual-meet record and had won 11 NCAA titles in as many tries.

In 1991, Coughlin, then 9, completed a questionnaire as a member of the Benicia Blue Dolphins.

Question: When you attended swim meets did you like it?

Answer: Yes and no. No, because I miss all my cartoons. Yes, because I might win things.

Q: What are the reasons you swim on a U.S. team?

A: The reason is because I live in the U.S.

Q: Name things you do not enjoy at swim practice.

A: Hitting my head on the wall.

Say what?

``When she was really young she would go all out and sometimes she would hit her head,'' her mother, Zennie, said last week.

Coughlin learned to swim as a toddler in Vallejo, where her father, Jim, is a police officer. The Coughlins had a backyard pool so they insisted Natalie and her younger sister Megan, now a sophomore at UC-Davis, take lessons.

As Coughlin, who will turn 22 during the Games, improved, she joined the Terrapins in Concord, a club with a national reputation. Coach Ray Mitchell immediately recognized Coughlin's willpower.

Early training

``The kid had one speed -- hard,'' Mitchell recalled. ``At training, she swam everything harder than anybody else. We had to refine her.''

In 1997, the family moved to Concord, where Coughlin attended Carondelet High.

A year later, she became the first sophomore named national swimmer of the year. Expectations for the Sydney Games skyrocketed.

Mitchell said he tried to downplay the talk. Still, the coach marveled at her ability. Mitchell had Coughlin swimming thousands of yards a day in a plan to reach the 2000 Olympics. She was so good she swam with the boys.

In March 1999, when she was 17, the Coughlin express derailed. After a particularly tough workout she suffered a throbbing injury that has been described as torn cartilage around the left shoulder joint. The next morning Coughlin could barely use her arm. Instead of surgery, she opted for physical therapy.

She continued coming to the pool for the next 15 months. But Coughlin no longer could complete strenuous workouts and was relegated to the novice lane.

What had been a joy had become drudgery. Through tears and spite she started to distance herself from the Terrapins and swimming. Coughlin went to the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials saying she hated swimming.

``I didn't even care if I made the team or not,'' said Coughlin, who finished fourth in the 200 individual medley, missing the Games by two places.

She needed a change.

Coughlin might have quit had she not already accepted a scholarship to Cal. She planned to swim the bare minimum.

Four years later much has been made about how Bears Coach Teri McKeever revived the broken soul by allowing Coughlin to heal mentally as well as physically.

In her years at Cal, starting in fall 2000, she set five world and 18 national records. She was named the national swimmer of the year three times. And Coughlin is the first and only woman to swim the 100 backstroke in under a minute, and the first American woman to go under 54 seconds in the 100 freestyle.

``It's not like I woke up one day and was a different person,'' Coughlin said on a damp morning in Berkeley. ``It took me a year to realize how much I enjoyed the sport.''

That year, Coughlin came to know McKeever and her motherly ways. Coughlin didn't know what to expect from her first woman coach. Now, she cites the dynamic as one of the most important elements in her resurrection.

``Teri has so much respect for her swimmers, and knows how to trust them,'' Coughlin said.

Eating disorders

McKeever broadened her perspective, she said, allowing her to become a more thoughtful athlete. That led her to address concerns about eating disorders -- something she has never publicly discussed.

Coughlin said some of her swimming friends have been hospitalized because of the disorders. She would not reveal specific cases.

``It is one of those sports, your body is always seen,'' she said. ``Girls are worried about their body weight and body image is something coaches should never bring up.

``It was brought up a lot in high school. A lot of male coaches don't realize how a little comment could affect someone.''

At Cal, bodies were never mentioned. On the deck before training, the swimmers often kibitzed with their coach about the latest news developments. McKeever, the first woman named to coach a U.S. Olympic swim team, tried to engage her athletes into the larger fabric of the campus.

With Coughlin, McKeever became more of a confidant than a hard-nosed coach.

``I've felt my job is to protect Natalie from all the outside distractions,'' McKeever said.

Terrapins days

When Coughlin talks about her past she rarely mentions the Terrapins, but Zennie said the family has no regrets about the club, despite the shoulder injury. Coughlin met lifelong friends there, including her boyfriend, Ethan Hall.

But Mitchell, who is suffering from colon cancer, is puzzled by how his club has almost been forgotten.

``We feel we developed her from nothing to a national level,'' he said. ``It would have been nice to get a little more respect for our contributions to her success.

``She fixates on that last year. We get the credit for the injury, but not for the rehabilitation.''

``The pressure is hard and sometimes it is not fair,'' Coughlin has said. ``No matter what I do, I can't meet everybody's expectations.''

And the potential for fame?

``It can be a pain.''

She didn't smile when she said it.