Natalie Coughlin (born August 23, 1982) is an American competition swimmer and twelve-time Olympic medalist. Ten days before her 20th birthday in 2002, she became the first woman ever to swim the 100-meter backstroke (long course) 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.[1]
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. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she earned a bronze medal in the 4x100-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.