Natalie Anne Coughlin 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. 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-eight medals in major international competition, twenty-one gold, seventeen silver, and ten bronze spanning the Olympics, the... World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. Coughlin currently lives in Lafayette, California and is of Irish and one quarter Filipino 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.
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