Hold Up, She's Really Good Too

I feel a little bad for Natalie Coughlin.

First off, she's no Michael Phelps.

Second, she was overshadowed by a teenager and a middle-aged woman at the start of these Olympic Games.

Third, she's always gotten lost in someone else's spotlight.

I have a great affinity for Coughlin and yes it's because she's not too hard on the eyes and because the summer before I went to the University of California, there was Coughlin, at the U.S. swimming trials, wearing her signature Cal swim cap. And the week I moved to Berkeley to set sail on what would be a typical college career, there was Coughlin, winning five medals at the 2004 Athens Games, but overshadowed by a big-eared teenager named Michael Phelps.

What many don't remember is that Coughlin actually tied the medal count for the most ever swimming medals by an American female swimmer back in 2004. She was heralded as the best female swimmer of our time, and it was pretty damn cool that she went to the same university that I just enrolled in.

Coughlin finds herself lost again after the completion of her swimming program at these (what might be her final) Olympic Games. Before, it was the hype of youngster Katie Hoff (who failed to win gold this year) and 41-year-old sensation Dara Torres (who also failed to win gold this year).

And of course during these Olympics, no one could overcome the bright aura of Phelps.

But lost in the fray is that, win the medley relay silver she won today, Coughlin has taken home more medals in any one Olympic Games than any American female swimmer has ever done before--six.

It was probably bad timing for Coughlin and a little bad luck. I guarntee, if Phelps wasn't so Phelpsian and did the improbable by aiming for Mark Spitz's record at the Beijing Games and by declaring his assault on Spitz at the 2004 Games, Coughlin would have been the United States' top draw in Athens and in Beijing.

But such is the life of anyone who goes to or went to Cal (I guess it's what we get for attending the No. 1 public university in the world). There's always someone doing something a little bit better than what we're doing.

Not to say that Coughlin's accomplishments are nothing. They're amazing. She may very well be the best American female swimmer of all time.

The mainstream media will never pin that on her though. It will take a Phelpsian effort to be able to claim that title in this country.

And that may be a little sad. Coughlin represents everything that a quirky, research oriented, politically active school like Cal represents. She, in her everyday mannerisms in the pool and her training, represents the (I know it's cliche) out-of-the-box thinking expected of students from Cal. For more insight on this, read Michael Silver's book about Coughlin's journey to the 2004 Games, Golden Girl.

In it, Silver tells how Coughlin and Cal coach Teri McKeever have used unorthodox, unconventional training regiments to prepare for the Olympics.

But even with that, with a new style of coaching that has challenged a long tradition of how Americans have been coached in swimming, Coughlin can't get out of Phelps' shadow.

I'm sure she takes it all in stride. I'm sure Coughlin accepts the fact that she can be the one who basks in the shadows of others' greatness, while being just as equally great.