If you wander over to the ESPN site and look for a story about Natalie Coughlin on the front page, you won’t find one there. You won’t find a Natalie Coughlin story on the front page of Sports Illustrated either. However, you will find a Natalie Coughlin article here, on the front page of Lockergnome. She deserves the recognition.

In the Olympic qualifying meet in Omaha, Natalie Coughlin is lowing the world record:

“…Coughlin, a Cal graduate, qualified for her second Olympic Games in world-record fashion, powering to the wall in 58.97 seconds and lowering the bar on a record she set the day before.

“This is such an emotional meet,” said Coughlin, already donning a dark blue USA hat. “It feels so good to finally be on the team. Now I get to take a breath and enjoy the rest of the meet.”"

link: Coughlin earns Olympic berth

She is a world class athlete who is setting new standards in her sport. Some describe her as the ‘American girl next door’. That is only if the girl next door is an Olympic athlete with a laser focus to succeed. The editors of ESPN and Sports Illustrated should have this story as their lead sports article of the day. It speaks volumes that they don’t.

Catherine Forsythe