Natalie Coughlin is scheduled to make an appearance on the sports talk show Undeniable with Joe Buck on Tuesday, July 3rd, and the network has released a few clips in advance of the episode. She follows in the footsteps of her swimming peer Michael Phelps, who appeared on the show in its first season in 2015.
In the show, hosted on the Audience Network, Buck, who is a multi-time Emmy Award-winning sports commentator for Fox, interviews athletes from across the world of sports. The interviews often touch on deeper and more emotional subjects that the superficial levels of competition that is typical of television sports coverage.
Among the topics discussed by Coughlin are her struggle to fit in at Cal, where she had one of the most storied collegiate swimming careers in history; and talks of her childhood coach Ray Mitchell at the Terrapin Swim Team in Concord, California.
In the segment, below, regarding Mitchell, Coughlin accuses him of being harder on her than other swimmers, saying that she thinks Mitchell viewed her as “validating to his career.” Coughlin goes on to say that she and her fellow female teammates were often body-shamed by her former coach, being told they were overweight, or hearing her coach walk by swimmers and say “jiggle, jiggle, jiggle,” as a reference to their weights.
Mitchell, who has coached several other female national champions including Kate Dwelley, Lauren Rogers, and Laura Davis besides Coughlin, is still the Team Director at the Terrapin Swim Team. We have reached out to Mitchell for comment on Coughlin’s remarks, but as of posting have not heard back
The 35-year old Coughlin is one of the most decorated Olympians in history of sports. Her 12 medals (3 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze) across 3 Olympic Games (2004-2012) rank her 17th all-time across all sports and 5th among swimmers (behind Phelps, Thompson, Lochte, and Torres). At just 19-years old, she became the first woman ever to break 1-minute in the 100 backstroke in long course meters, she’s the second female athlete in modern Olympic history to win 6 medals at one Games (2008), and she’s broken 13 World Records in 7 different events. Coughlin announced in June that she was pregnant with her first child.
See the other clips here:
My USAS coach (who was and is a good person) would probably be horrified to be reminded of the time he had me (16) get on a scale immediately after an event with which he was unsatisfied. I was never overweight (underwater body comp. put me way under 15%) but in the 80’s everyone was obsessed with “no fat chicks” thinness. Fortunately, my college coach wasn’t at all like that. Unfortunately, by then the damage had been done and I was way more concerned about staying thin than being at the best weight for competition. I would guess that I was too thin during much of my swimming career and might have been faster if I had cared more about… Read more »
I swam on the Terrapins for a year (1999-2000) and a summer (2001) and was privileged to swim under the Best Technical Coach in the USA at the time and for many years I believe, Ray Mitchell, along side Natalie Coughlin, and a completely out of this world team who showed me every day that the “insanity” going on in that pool and the expectations were real and possible. And thank you Quinn for putting up with the French girl when she didn’t have a car!
I came from France when I was 18 and my year with the Terrapins was my first ever in the US. I stayed with a great host family, but I could barely speak… Read more »
I swam with Ray Mitchell for 5 years; 2 of them overlapping with Natalie’s time on Terrapins. This story saddens me deeply. Coach Ray remains one of the most influential people in my life.
Any coach would agree— coaching is one of the most difficult, time consuming jobs a person can have. Yet Ray literally gave his life for all of us. The hours he spent with us and then researching I will never be able to count.
We were ungrateful at times because we lacked maturity and perspective as teens, but I know as most of us look back we truly appreciate that he poured his life into each and every one of us, including Natalie.
… Read more »
I swam on Terrapins National Team under Ray Mitchell from 1998 – 2004. For several of those years, I was part of the same training group that Natalie was. The claims Natalie made in her book and statements she made during her recent interview with Joe Buck are misrepresentations of a swim program, swim coach and man who positively impacted the lives so many who were fortunate enough to swim for him. This is further evidenced by the myriad of former swimmers who are now coming to their coach’s aid. I hope and expect to see this continue.
As many have already attested, Ray ran a very serious, no nonsense National Team. He constantly pushed and challenged us to… Read more »
Ray thank you for everything as well! I wouldn’t be half the woman I am today if it weren’t for YOU, CINDY, MY TEAMMATES, OUR FAMILIES, and the COWELL POOL STAFF. This includes Natalie! Natalie you pushed me to work harder everyday like the other 19 of us. We never let each other “save up Sally.” I am not in agreement with your claims. I’m so grateful for my coach RAY!
I swam with Ray from 1995/6-2003. I trained right next to Natalie, 10-11 times a week for 4+ years. We were pushed when we needed pushing, we were challenged day in and day out to be the best we could be. We talked about making Jr Cuts, Sr. Cuts, Olympic trials and becoming National Champions and Olympic Champions. This was not a summer rec team, we had big time goals which took serious dedication, support, commitment, and drive. As Laura Davis talked about in her reply, Ray was far ahead of the game when it came to nutrition, lactic acid blood testing, heart rate monitoring among other techniques that helped us bring 10+ terrapins almost every year to nationals. There… Read more »
**”Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle”
I swam with the Terrapins in the late 90s and trained with Natalie. I remember the “jiggle jiggle” thing. It was so different from how she’s painted it. In Ray’s group at that time, there were less than twenty swimmers and half of us were girls. None of us were anything even close to overweight. At some point, I think at a travel meet, someone made a stupid joke, saying “jiggle jiggle” to another who was eating candy or donuts or something “unhealthy” like that. It was in the middle of a light-hearted conversation during which everyone was teasing everyone else. I’m not sure who said it, whether it was Ray or one of us. After that, the comment stuck.… Read more »
This happened to me in the early 80’s. I was 20 years old, a long distance-runner (minimum 50 miles a week), I was swimming 4 to 5 times per week and biking several times a week. I was 5’8′, 138lbs and went in for my first physical. All the doctor could tell me is that I should lose weight. The weight charts, at the time, showed females of my age and height should only weigh 125lbs maximum. I had great body tone including a flat stomach, but could never get under this weight unless I was sick. I tried everything including vomiting or just not eating. People would ask how much I weighed and when I told them they would… Read more »
Continuation of previous comment:
I swam for Ray from 1987-89 and then trained with the Terrapins during college breaks. I was his 2nd swimmer to qualify for the 1988 Olympic Trials. I did this after just 10 months of training “all year around”. Prior to that, I only swam Summer rec from May-Labor Day.
Its totally amazing that in just 10 months, Ray was able to turn me into an Olympic Trials swimmer. All of this was achieved through hard work, discipline, and proper nutrition. We had to keep a log book and meet with Ray each week to talk about our progress.
I recall several conversations in which he told me that I would need to… Read more »
I have been coaching for over 20 years at the club level. When it comes to weight, whether male or female, there is one fundamental truth… there must be a balance of power-to-weight in order to be successful.
My analogy to swimmers, and their parents, is that athletes are “race cars.” Race cars run on race fuel to develop the most power possible from the engine. This means the athlete must do the same… no junk food, no foods which provide empty calories, etc. Race cars are built to have only the essentials. A race car does not have a radio, a/c, amenities which will add weight to slow it down. Hopefully, athletes and parents are smart enough to… Read more »