Olympics: Natalie Coughlin's dream of a fourth Games falls short

Twelve-time gold medalist Natalie Coughlin's announcement was low key.

AT SOME POINT, no matter how hard you work to keep i shape, the body eventually wears down. It happens to all athletes. The years catch up to you no matter how strong a competitive spirit you have.

Olympic star and swimmer Natalie Coughlin - at age 33 - has  reached that point.

Filipina/American Coughlin, who was on three Olympic teams, winner of 12 Olympic medals, innumerable national championships announced last Friday that she is withdrawing from the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska. Her dream of making a fourth Olympic team has come to an end.

After finishing 8th in the 100-meter backstroke and failing to win her heat in the 100-meter freestyle, an event she won just a few months ago leading up to trials, she knew she was done.

“I just didn’t have it for these trials,” Coughlin told Bleacher Report. “I don’t know why. I can’t explain it. I’ve just been off in my swimming for a few months. It’s just ... just heartbreaking. That’s the word. Heartbreaking.”

Before her final event in th 50-meter freestyle, she held a press conference. Dressed in a grey warmup suit with the Cal logo, her hair pulled back, back erect, and her steely blue eyes staring down the reporters, she announced her decision.

But she made it clear that she  was not retiring from swimming.

"I'm not announcing a retirement or anything like that; I'm just not going to the Olympics," said Coughlin. "From there, I don't know. Swimming has been a part of my life since I joined my first club team when I was six years old.

"It will always be a part of my life. I don't really see the point of saying that it's over — because it'll always be there," she told the reporters.

Natalie Coughlin Facebook

Natalie Coughlin won 12 Olympic medals equaling fellow swimmers Dara Torres and Jenny Thomas,
the most won by female Olympians.

 “I can’t wait to get home (Lafayette, California) to my husband and begin to discover a life outside of the pool. I’m not going to be so focused on every ache and pain in my body. I’m going to spend a lot of time in my kitchen, which I absolutely love. I’m a Type A personality with OCD. So I love the prep work in the kitchen and the chopping and all that goes into that. I can’t wait to see my garden.”

Coughlin plans on continuing to swim, train and stay in shape because she can't imagine her life not doing that. She also will cheer on some of her Cal teammates who are going to Rio as she ponders what the next chapter in her life will be like. Coaching, perhaps? or maybe she'll appear on a Food Network show cooking some of her mother's Filipino recipes, or maybe ... there's the 2020 Olympics.

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