“This Olympics, being in Beijing, are going to be the biggest Olympics ever,” Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin declares.
When Natalie swims, records fall – two of them during the Olympic Trials last month.
It’s no surprise – a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner, Coughlin has been like a fish in water since childhood.
[ Access Extended: Meet Olympic Swimmer Natalie Coughlin - Play it Now ]
But, she says, it was surfing trips to her uncle’s home in Hawaii that grounded her love for the water.
And although the 25-year-old obviously has an athletic build, she claims she was chubby as a child, and that even Olympians get self-conscious sometimes.
“The self consciousness is mostly when you are parading around in a bikini and at photo shoots,” she says. “But running around at the pool, I generally feel fine because that is my every day outfit.”
[ All Access: 2008 Beijing Olympics - Weddings - Athletes - Style ]
But when she’s not in her everyday wear, Natalie, like most swimmers, has trouble finding clothes to fit her broad shoulders and tapered waist. She claims she has a Size 10 upper body but a Size 4 lower body.
“It’s really impossible for me to get dresses,” she states. “I am getting married, so wedding dress shopping it was so hard to get a dress that actually fit me. I had to get a gigantic one and then I am going to tailor it down for my waist.”
Engaged since April to longtime boyfriend Ethan Hall, Natalie plans to walk down the aisle in Napa, Calif., in April 2009, at the Carneros Resort.
In her free time, Natalie also serves as a spokesperson for iTrain, a company that provides MP3 workouts for fitness training. To train like her, fans can even take her workouts into the water by using an H20 Audio waterproof iPod case and headphones.
And even if her dive toward another gold doesn’t pan out, at least she’s already got her wedding dress!
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