Fellow Foodie: Olympic Athlete Natalie Coughlin

Events: 100m back, 100m free, 200m IM, 4x100m free relay, 4x200m free relay, 4x100m medley relay
Number Olympic Medals: Five
Hobbies: Why, cooking bruschetta for her friends, of course!

Did anyone else catch NBC's profile of Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin on Sunday? We're so tickled to find a fellow foodie in this Olympic athlete!

We were (of course) making dinner and had the Olympics on in the background. But we perked right up when this uber-muscled swimmer from California start gushing about how much she loves food and cooking.

The profile had several shots of Coughlin wandering through a farmer's market in San Fransisco, commenting on the lettuce and offering a perky "Thank you!" with every purchase. Back in her swanky kitchen, she packs her groceries into a fridge and cooks up some bruschetta for her friends.

Coughlin first got into cooking during her freshman year at Berkeley. The food in the dorms was terrible, and so she started teaching herself to cook by watching the Food Network and reading food magazines. Sound familiar?!

These days, Coughlin says that cooking brings balance into her life and provides a therapeutic break from the pressures of competitive swimming. And if she had to pick a favorite dish, her vote goes to risotto.

Natalie, from our kitchen to yours, we wish you the best of luck in Beijing! We'll be rooting for you with bruschetta in hand.

• We couldn't find a link to the video, but we did come across this article on the NBC website about Natalie's photography and cooking hobbies.
• The women's swimming competition is on again tonight, so tune in to support our new favorite foodie athlete!

(Image: Flickr member jdlasica licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (4)

Maybe I've ODed on Olympics coverage already. I saw the same segment on Natalie and found it to be contrived and silly. But, to be fair - a great majority of those "get to know the athlete" segments are pretty forced and bordering ridiculous (the Michael Phelps segment was even worse - he eats at the local diner! he eats so much! did we mention he eats a lot?).

I'm glad that Natalie shops at the farmer's market and actually makes things to eat in her kitchen - but does that really make one a foodie? It seems like shopping healthfully and making a snack for friends shouldn't really be considered that remarkable.

I'd love to see more coverage of the street food traditions of Beijing or the hard-to-find and unmarked restaurant treasures in the hutongs. I've had quite enough of the stories about dog meat being banned during the Olympics and the repeated coverage of the Beijing restaurant that specialized in serving penises of various animals. I'm hoping to see some real foodie-oriented coverage and less of the contrived and stereotypical stuff I've seen so far.

Well, I'm still excited about the Olympics and I thought it was actually really nice that this girl had actual hobbies in order to prevent herself from getting too into swimming. Contrast this with Micheal Phelps whose schedule has been reported as Eat, Swim, Sleep. Yeah, you may have 11 gold medals but is it really worth it if your life is like that?

I loved that Natalie said "Broo-sketta"... not "broo-schetta". I know... I know... I'm overthinkin' it. It's a small thing but it's a pet peeve.

Go Bears!