Only a few weeks after her birth, Coughlin took her first dip in the family's backyard pool. By the time she was 10 months old, her parents enrolled her in swimming lessons at a YMCA. By the time she was 5, she was swimming competitively. She joined the elite Concord Terrapins in California when she was 12 and no one had her pegged as future Olympian. Her coaches liked her competitive streak and talent, but her technique needed work. After a few refinements she started to excel, and in 1998, as a 15-year-old, she became the first swimmer to qualify for the Summer Nationals in all 14 events.

A teenage prodigy, Coughlin was considered an elite swimmer at an early age until one day in March 1999. She woke up with severe pain in her left shoulder, pain so bad she struggled to lift her arm above her head. Diagnosed with a torn labrum muscle, doctors told Coughlin there was no guaranteed cure. Initially, Coughlin tried to rehabilitate it with physical therapy, but that was not effective. She scheduled surgery, but before she had the procedure, Stanford women's swimming coach Richard Quick suggested she see Michael Dillingham, an orthopedist for the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. Dillingham sent her to Active Care, a rehab clinic in San Francisco that is credited with bringing future NFL Hall-of-Famer Jerry Rice back to health. Coughlin rehabbed her shoulder the next year using their program. She wasn't all the way back by the middle of 2000, and failed to make the Olympic team. But less than a year later, she was a world champion. Coughlin also credits the improved results to a changed mental attitude. She says she no longer is focused just on swimming and has diversified her training regimen to include running, cycling, kickboxing, yoga and weightlifting.

Coughlin attended the University of California-Berkeley, where Teri McKeever coached her. She was scheduled to graduate with a psychology degree this year and carries a 3.5 grade-point average. She grew up near Berkeley in the East Bay suburb of Concord. As a collegian, she was named NCAA Swimmer of the Year in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Coughlin lost only one time in her college career, losing her final race at the NCAA Championships. Coughlin says she had no regrets about foregoing sponsorship dollars to swim all four years. "I decided to stay eligible and I'm really happy with that decision," she told the Contra Costa Times in April.

Coughlin failed to make the 2000 Olympic Team after placing fourth in the 200m individual medley at Trials. Since then she refined her training regimen and mental approach and became one of the sport's superstars. She had a breakout year in 2001. After winning two national titles at Spring Nationals, Coughlin captured her first world title at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, winning the 100m backstroke.

Going into the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona, Coughlin was expected to win as many as six gold medals. Instead, a viral infection made her feverish and nauseous most of the week. She finished 22nd in the backstroke, an event in which she held the world record. In addition, she finished eighth in the 100m butterfly and skipped the 100m free altogether. Refusing to call her experience in Barcelona a disappointment, Coughlin instead dubbed it blessing. "It was a good thing for me -- it took a lot of pressure off the Olympic year," she told The Australian newspaper.

--NBC