When Natalie Coughlin was left off this summer’s world championships team after a poor showing at the 2014 U.S. nationals, some began to question whether the 12-time Olympic medalist had crossed the imaginary line that signals the end of an athlete’s career. At age 31, she was competing against time as much as the young crop of sprinters that had grown up idolizing, well, herself.
But according to a report Sunday from ESPN’s Bonnie Ford, last year’s nationals weren’t a result of an aging body in decline but due to a bout of severe food poisoning in Irvine. And Coughlin went a step further in assuring her fans that she isn’t quite ready for the scrap heap, taking down a 12-year-old meet record in the women’s 100-meter freestyle during Tuesday morning’s preliminary heats on the first day of pool competition at the Pan American Games in Toronto.
[Results from Day 1 of the Pan American Games]
Coughlin, who will turn 33 in August, finished in a time of 53.85 seconds, her fastest time since 2010 and second fastest time since 2008. She crushed the record previously held by Amanda Weir, who was in the lane next to her, of 54.46 and rockets to 10th in the world this season and first among Americans.
“I’m a different competitor than I used to be,” Coughlin told ESPN, speaking about herself as a veteran swimmer. “When I was younger, I would get so angry at the stupidest things. If a competitor looked at me funny. Or, if I lost a race, it was the end of the world. Now I know it’s not the end of the world. In some ways, I don’t take swimming so seriously, and in other ways, I take it more seriously. I let the little things go when it’s important to let it go. I enjoy the process much more.”
[29 photos from Day 1 of the Pan American Games swimming prelims]
The swim, which qualified her first overall for Tuesday night’s final, would have placed her fourth at last summer’s Pan Pacific Championships, two-hundredths of a second ahead of Missy Franklin. Coughlin’s lifetime best is a 53.39 from the 2008 Santa Clara International.
Weir qualified fourth overall with a 54.36.
Later in the session, the United States added its second record of the morning when the preliminary heat of Katie Meili, Allison Schmitt, Madison Kennedy and Kelsi Worrell took down the mark in the 4×100 freestyle relay.
There time of 3:37.28 annihilated the record set in 2011 by the Americans by more than three seconds and the U.S. qualified first by more than 5.5 seconds. The U.S. women split 55.51, 53.82, 53.92 and 54.04, respectively.
What’s scary is that if the U.S. decided to add Coughlin, Weir or even both, there is the potential to clip another two or three seconds off the mark, which would challenge the American’s best time from last summer of 3:34.23 — despite missing top sprinters Simone Manuel and Missy Franklin.