{"id":390082,"date":"2019-08-13T05:30:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T12:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=390082"},"modified":"2019-08-27T08:09:27","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T15:09:27","slug":"world-record-flashback-natalie-coughlin-becomes-first-woman-to-break-100-in-100-back-at-2002-us-nationals-in-fort-lauderdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-record-flashback-natalie-coughlin-becomes-first-woman-to-break-100-in-100-back-at-2002-us-nationals-in-fort-lauderdale\/","title":{"rendered":"World Record Flashback: Natalie Coughlin Becomes First Woman to Break 1:00 in 100 Back at 2002 US Nationals in Fort Lauderdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natalie Coughlin<\/strong> became the first woman under 1:00 in the 100 back on August 13, 2002 at the US Nationals in Fort Lauderdale. She swam a 59.58 to lower 1:00.18 American Record from 2001 Worlds and also the 1:00.16 WR from He Cihong<\/strong> at the 1994 Worlds.<\/p>\n

Coughlin would go on to break the 100 back WR four more times in her career. She was the first woman under 1:00 and 59 in the event. She took it all the way down to a 58.97 at the 2008 Olympic Trials.<\/p>\n

Coughlin had been chasing the record for a while. In a 2002 article on\u00a0Swimming World<\/em>, she was quoted:<\/p>\n

“I kept thinking, ‘tonight is the night, tonight is the night,'” Coughlin said. Tonight\u00a0was<\/i>\u00a0the night.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I was glad I finally did it, glad to get it over with. It takes a lot of pressure off me.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n