For those of us 40,000 USMS members who don't pay for the Premium Benefit on Swiminfo.com, the big news is that Natalie Coughlin will swim the 100 free and 100 back at Trials. Not sure why that is "premium-worthy," but there you are. Glad I could help break that exclusive to all of you; more "breaking" news later.
Those two aren't the only events she's swimming, are they? What about the 200 free, 100 fly, 200 back or 200 IM? That would be a real disappointment if she only swam two events at OTs.
Coughlin wants to try to be a part of as many relay teams as possible in Athens.
She was always going to swim the 100 back; on the Olympic schedule, the 100 fly and the 100 back conflict (less than 15 minutes between them on the second night.) The 200 free also conflict with maybe less than 20 minutes between the two. The 100 free and the 200 back overlap with each other. Coughlin prefers the 100 free to the 200 back - so she's going with that. They do plan on entering all of the above at Trials, just in case.
There is also an article out of Australia about the decision at
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/.../0,5744,9875446%5E2722,00.html
or link to it from the Media Coverage section on the usaswimming.org website.
