Athens - Filipino-American Natalie Coughlin, who has won two gold medals, one silver and one bronze in swimming at the 2004 Olympic Games, was going for her fifth medal Thursday night as she competes in the women’s 400-medley relay finals along with three other best women swimmers in the world.

On Wednesday, the Filipino-American from the San Francisco Bay Area was part of the U.S. women’s team to win gold medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay which finished the race in 7 minutes 53.42 seconds, shattering the record of 7:55.80 set by East Germany in 1987.

“A world record is a world record, no matter who does it,” said Coughlin of Concord, California, who started the race for the U.S.

On Monday, she won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter backstroke in 1 minute 00.37 seconds -- just 0.79 seconds outside her own world record she won three years ago. Her team also won silver in the 400-free relay.

“the reason i am swimming as well as i am i that I
m really enjoying what I'm doing,” said Coughlin on Thursday. “I couldn't have said that four years ago. I have a medal of each color now.”

This early, Philippine sports officials are wooing her to represent the country in the next year’s Southeast Asian Games and the Qatar Asian games in 2006.

Coughlin had established herself as the most versatile female swimmer in the world. She missed the selection for Sydney and then fell ill during last year’s world championships.

World’s most versatile swimmer

She won the 100-meter backstroke world title in 2001 and a year later became the first and only women to break a minute for the event

Mother a Filipino

In 2002, Coughlin, whose father is an American, and her mother, Zennie, is a Filipino who works as a paralegal, became the first person since Tracy Caulkins in 1978 to win fife titles in the U.S. national championships.

Coughlin’s grandmother, who is from Meycauyan, Bulacan, is a constant presence at her swimming events.

She will turn 22 on Monday and has no memory of the East Germans setting the record in Strasbourg, France.

Another Filipino American swimmer, Jackie Pangilinan, is competing for the Philippines in the Olympics but is not as lucky as Coughlin.

Pangilinan, who turned dual citizen in January, recently graduated from Clifton High School in New Jersey. She will attend Harvard University in the Fall.


First Fil-Am Olympian

But the first Filipino-American to break the race barrier was Viciki Manalo Draves, who joined the U.S. team in the 1948 Olympics held in London.

Draves, whose father was a Filipino, grew up in San Francisco's South of Market area.

For years, her two gold medals were the most medals won by a Filipino-American, a record that might be surpassed by Natalie Coughlin who swims in five events in the 2004 Olympics.


Taken from, Filipino Reporter New York City/August 20-26,2004

how about Filipino citizens winning medals and not FIl-Ams...??

yeah there is alot of filipinos who won, i posted it a while back but iono where it is now....

Dalwapo,

she might represent PI in the sea games

http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...topic=15727&hl=

oh thats nice. i never really watched the sea games tho.. -lauhs


so did u ride or fly to ny? cooz i thought i saw u... but not really

we flew, you stalker!

oph well i was on greyhound & it wazzzza *bleepin* biatch!!!!!!