Natalie Coughlin Breaks American Record in 100 IM in Italy

Natalie Coughlin, continuing her tour through Italy, has broken the American Record in the 100 SCM IM at the Trofeo Internazionale di Nuoto “Mussi-Lombardi-Femiano” on Saturday. She won the race in 58.55, which takes a tenth of a second off of the 58.65 done by Ariana Kukors at the 2010 Short Course World Championships.

The swim moves Coughlin up to a tie for 11th 0n the all-time list with Great Britain’s Fran Halsall in an event that Americans only very rarely race. The World Record is a 56.86 belonging to Hungarian Katinka Hosszu.

The top 6 Americans of all-time:

  • Natalie Coughlin, 2014, 58.55
  • Ariana Kukors, 2010, 58.65
  • Julia Smith, 2008, 58.90
  • Katie Meili, 2014, 59.01
  • Jenny Thompson, 1999, 59.30
  • Missy Franklin, 2011, 59.44

Coughlin will swim at the short course meters World Championships in December, but her only entry is as part of the American 400 free relay. Until this fall, Coughlin hadn’t swum a single official backstroke race since the 2012 Olympic Trials, but as part of a three meet Italian tour so far in the last month, she’s been getting back into the backstroke/butterfly/IM races that made her so famous early in her career.

She now holds 8 American Records across the various courses, including two individually in short course meters (she also owns the 100 back in short course meters from the 2011 Duel in the Pool).

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calswimfan
9 years ago

go natalie!

9 years ago

Natalie Coughlin with the 100m IM American record?! What a beast!!

bobo gigi
9 years ago

Her 2002 splits: 26.41/32.39 >>>> 58.80
Her 2014 splits: 26.72/31.83 >>>> 58.55

She also beat Federica Pellegrini in the 100 free. 52.68 vs 53.19

bobo gigi
9 years ago

Natalie broke the American and world record in the 100 IM at the East Meadow world cup on November 23, 2002! She swam 58.80 on that day.
http://www.omegatiming.com/File/Download?id=00010204003D000000FFFFFFFFFFFF01
It’s impressive to see her still at the best level 12 years later.
Great longevity. Amazing career. Huge champion. Respect.

Oldtimer
9 years ago

RE: top 5 list – didn’t Jenny Thompson swim a 59.30 back in the 90s, which was then a WR?

Lane Four
Reply to  Braden Keith
9 years ago

I believe that was Angel Martino. She swam this at 1993 world short course championships swimming a 58.6 (I think).

Oldtimer
Reply to  Lane Four
9 years ago

Martino broke the 100 back SCM record at 58.50, something she only swam a few times.

9 years ago

Very cool. I certainly hope she makes a run at the 2IM in ’16.

bobo gigi
Reply to  Patrick W. Brundage
9 years ago

100 IM in short course is very different.
And I think she doesn’t want to swim events above 100 meters in long course anymore.

Steve Nolan
9 years ago

Glad to see she’s branching back out into non-freestyle events!

whoknows
9 years ago

Yeah for Natalie!

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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