Former Cal swimmer and 3-time Olympian, Natalie Coughlin gets replaced by 17 year old Lia Neal and doesn't swim the 4x100 freestyle finals in the London Olympics - even though Natalie had an impressively fast prelim. The USA team finished third and she earns a bronze medal for her prelims swimming for the team. Natalie joins Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres as the most decorated female Olympians in U.S. history, but she wanted to win a medal by swimming in the finals instead, and was surprised by the coaches' decision:
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"I was a little bit disappointed because I tend to get better as the meet progresses," Coughlin said. "But I don't envy the coaches what they had to go through."
"I have no idea what to think of it so far," she said a half hour after the Americans finished behind Australia and the Netherlands. "I'll have to take it all in tonight. I've never been on a morning relay before so it's a little different."
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via
http://www.marinij.com/olympics/ci_21181152/natalie-coughlins-olympics-appear-be-over-cal-star
Weird! Controversial decision by the USA swimming coaching staff, to not put an experienced, competitive swimmer - who performed great in the prelims - on the relay finals too. Her personal coach, Teri McKeever, is the USA team's head coach:
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"We all gave our opinions," McKeever said. "It wasn't unanimous."
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via
http://www.marinij.com/olympics/ci_21181152/natalie-coughlins-olympics-appear-be-over-cal-star
The USA team - Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy, Allison Schmitt and Lia Neal - broke the U.S. record with 3:34.24, but Australia won with an Olympic-record time of 3.33.15. The Dutch were close by winning the silver medal.
Maybe different results for the USA team with Natalie Coughlin swimming?! In any case, it would make more sense for Coughlin to have had a part in the finals too, based on her performance in the prelims.
