LONDON (AP) — Natalie Coughlin is a perfect 12 for 12 in Olympic races. Only this time, she earned a medal without swimming in the final.
Coughlin tied Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres for most career medals by an American woman with 12 when the United States won a bronze in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay on Saturday night.
She swam a leg in the morning preliminaries for the first time in her career, helping the U.S. qualify second-fastest. But for the evening final, teenager Missy Franklin and Jessica Hardy joined Olympic rookie Lia Neal and Allison Schmitt, leaving Coughlin to play cheerleader.
Coughlin, whose six medals in Beijing were the most by an American woman at one Olympics, didn’t qualify for an individual event in London. She finished sixth in the 100 free at the U.S. trials to put herself in the relay mix.
