I am confirm that Natalie is one of the more remarkable athletes and human beings who I have ever met. I covered the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships in Seville Spain that served as the qualifier for the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim. This is an excerpt of an article that I wrote for Swimming World Magazine on May 3, 2008. There are several other related articles about this event and Natalie on www.swimmingworldmagazine.com:

..."On the first loop, I was swimming together with everyone in the large group and I had my first feeding at the feeding station. But, when I get dunked by others around the turn buoys, it affects me because my hips go down and I have no kick. In the second half, I moved up to third during the third loop and tried to stay with Larisa (Ilchenko of Russia). It's easy to keep the same stroke when swimming with Larisa because she is so smooth. I had my second juice on the third lap. We started to get faster on the last lap and then the sprint started. The Spanish girl just..."

Steve at www.10Kswim.com