NATALIE COUGHLIN OPEN TO ADDING 100 BACK TO OLYMPIC TRIALS LINEUP

Natalie Coughlin won her 60th international medal Saturday night leading off the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, coming close to her personal best in the 100 back.

At the touch Coughlin was a 59.05 which is the fastest she’s been since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It’s also the fastest she’s been in her career in the event outside of the 2008 Olympic Trials and 2008 Olympic Games. With her best time sitting at 58.94, she was just just 11 one-hundredths of a second off her most impressive result.

“I knew that I could be close to my best in the 100 back,” said Coughlin.

Prior to this, the first woman to ever go under one-minute in the 100m backstroke hasn’t swam a fully rested 100m backstroke since the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, China.

“I was really excited to [swim the 100m backstroke] because with the pro series format, the 50 free was always right before or right after the 100 back so I was never really able to swim it this season.”

In the last chapter of Coughlin’s storied career she dropped the 100m backstroke from her schedule in order to focus on the 50 and 100m freestyles. Slowly but surely, Coughlin is growing more and more open to adding the backstroke to her program once more, “as long as it doesn’t overlap with any other events I would love to add it to the format,” said Coughlin.

Coughlin is gaining momentum as she heads towards the 2016 U.S Olympic Trials where she will attempt to qualify for her fourth Olympic team. There, she’s not shying away from the thoughts of once again racing the 100m backstroke, and possibly going after a third 100 back Olympic gold, “In the Olympic format 100 back, 100 free, 50 free, that plays out pretty nicely.”

After a 53.85 100 freestyle that was the fastest Coughlin has been since 2010, and a 24.66 personal best in her 50m freestyle, Coughlin’s focus will still be the sprint free events heading into 2016.

“I will still continue to focus on freestyle, mainly the 100, but also train backstroke and hopefully race it more.”