Natalie Coughlin

Who is Natalie Coughlin?

Natalie Anne Coughlin Hall is an American competition swimmer and model, she is twelve-time Olympic medalist. Ten days before her 20th birthday in 2002, she became the first woman ever to swim the 100-meter backstroke in under a minute. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she became the first U.S. female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympiad, and the first woman ever to win a 100-meter backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics.

Coughlin's success has 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-nine medals in major international competition, twenty-two gold, seventeen silver, and ten bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she earned a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Her total of twelve Olympic medals tie her with Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres for the most all-time by an American woman.