Natalie Coughlin is one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. In two Games, she has swum in 11 events — and won 11 medals.

Yet after winning six medals in Beijing in 2008, Coughlin took a break. She focused on life beyond swimming, got married and traveled. She also made an appearance on Dancing With the Stars.

Now, she's back in the pool in preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London and will swim this weekend at the Eric Namesnik Grand Prix in Ann Arbor.

Coughlin is part of a star-studded field scheduled to appear Friday through Sunday at Canham Natatorium. Other Olympic medalists include Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Cesar Ceilo, Peter Vanderkaay, Jason Lezak, Cullen Jones, Katie Hoff, Allison Schmitt, Ous Mellouli, Dana Vollmer and Christine Magnuson.

Pioneer High School graduate Kara Lynn Joyce, a two-time silver medalist, will also compete along with numerous former and present Michigan swimmers.

Preliminaries will begin at 9 a.m. each day and finals at 5:30 p.m.

The meet is named in honor of former Michigan swimmer Eric Namesnik, who died in a car accident in 2006. He was an eight-time U.S. national champion, two-time Olympic silver medalist and the top-ranked swimmer in the world in 1991 and 1993 in the 400-meter individual medley

AnnArbor.com caught up with Coughlin this week to discuss her past, her present, her future and what it's like when she's spotted out in public.

Q: What’s your training been like, your swim schedule been like over the past two years?

Natalie Coughlin: “Well, after Beijing I took a year and a half off of swimming and I stayed physically fit by running and still maintaining my strength, I just wasn’t in the water. January 2010, I got back in the pool and started really training hard again and have gradually been gearing up toward Olympic trials and hopefully the Olympics next year, so I’m right in the middle of that stage. My team just finished the college season and now everyone is gearing toward the summer, which I really enjoy being that I don’t swim anymore with a college team. So it’s nice to have everyone gearing toward the same thing.”

Q: When you took the year and a half off, did you think you’d still swim in 2012 or were you thinking about (retiring) because you got married, right?

NC: “Yeah, I got married just under two years ago and yeah, I knew I was going to come back but I knew I needed to have a break. It’s one of those things I’ve been competing for 20-some odd years and, at 28 years old, I never really had experienced life without swimming. I think that’s really important for me to take a mental break and experience life without training five hours a day in a pool and always looking toward the next meet and having all these pressures. I needed that life experience, I think. I got to do some really cool things, like Dancing With The Stars, and got to travel and it was a way of celebrating my success in previous years and also taking a full break to get ready for this time right now.”

Q: Like you said, you experienced life. Besides getting married and Dancing With The Stars, what was one thing where you were like ‘Oh man, I always wanted to do that and finally got to do it?’

NC: “Just traveling and not having things planned. One of the best things was I was still training, I was still working out a lot because I like that feeling of being physically fit. And, honestly, I love to eat. So I had to burn calories somehow, but not having a schedule was so nice, waking up whenever I wanted and going to the gym whenever I wanted, taking weekend trips, spontaneous weekend trips and vacations during the summer. Traveling. All these things that I’ve been wanting to do but haven’t been able to, but I know that I’ve had so many amazing, unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. So I’m not trying to take away from all the amazing opportunities I had, but it was just nice to not be so regimented and scheduled all the time.”

Q: What was the best trip you took?

NC: “Probably the trip to Bali. One of my very best friends, she got married there and out of 50 people that showed up to the wedding, 40 of them were our age and they were my best friends from college and their significant others. It was so awesome to be on the exact opposite end of the world with my best friends in Bali, where you live like a king. We had two weeks vacation there and that was amazing. We are already trying to plan our reunion at some point.”

Q: To talk a little bit about swimming, your career has been pretty impressive. Is there one thing that stands out besides the six medals in ’08?

NC: “What stands out is my consistency, for me at least. What I’m most proud of is I made two Olympic teams, I swam in 11 events and earned a medal in every single one of those events. I don’t know if another athlete could say that, 11 medals in 11 events, so I’m really proud of that and I’m just proud of the fact that I’m still doing it and I still love it and can still improve. Having that feeling after competing for two decades is awesome.”

Q: You’re one of the most decorated swimmers in American history. This might sound odd but when you go out, like go food shopping, do you get noticed or do you still have semi-anonymity going on, too?

NC: “I do (get noticed), but for the most part people don’t bother you or anything. A lot of the time I thought I was totally anonymous and no one knew who I was and I’m starting to realize that people more often know who I am than I think. Like people get in touch with me on Twitter and say ‘I just saw you at such and such’ and it shocks me that I get recognized. Sometimes, when I’m dressed up versus coming from the pool -- as a female you look quite different when you’re in sweats versus when you’re out on the town -- so I’m always surprised when I’m recognized.”

Q: The first time someone sent Tweet to you, were you like ‘Wait a minute…What?’

NC: “Yeah, it was situations where you think you’re totally anonymous and the whole time someone knew who you were. It’s weird. But it comes with the territory. I’ve gone to two Olympics and had great success and I did Dancing With The Stars, so I can’t act too surprised. But it is such a strange experience when it happens.”

Q: Do you think Dancing With The Stars elevated that a lot?

NC: “I think it did for a completely different audience because the audience for Dancing With The Stars can be much different than the Olympic audience. So I think some people learned who I was from that, but I think just the fact that I’ve been around for a while, I get this a lot. Like people will ask ‘Oh, you look familiar, how do I know you?’ That’s like the strangest question because how are you supposed to answer that, you know?

Q: How do you answer that and approach it?

NC: “If they know I’m an athlete of some sort I’ll tell them. But usually I’ll just play dumb. I think it’d be kind of conceited to say ‘Oh yes, I’m so and so’ and then they are like ‘Oh, that’s not what I thought at all.’”

Q: You mentioned 2012. What are your goals there and have you given thought to that potentially being it for you, or will you make a run at ’16?

NC: “That’s most likely it for me, but you never know. I’m just taking it every four years at a time and that’s what I’ve done since 2004. I didn’t know that I was going to swim past 2004 and then it came and went and all of a sudden it was 2008 and that came and went and all of a sudden it’s 2011. I’m just focusing on London and then re-evaluate from there. Like I’m starting to get a pretty good idea for what I want to do in London. I want to be there individually as well as on relays, but if I’ve learned anything from my experience in Beijing, you can’t plan for the Olympics. You can work toward your goals and you can get excited about your goals and all that, but in my Beijing program I didn’t know I was going to do the 200 IM or even attempt the 200 IM until a week before Olympic trials. I did not plan on doing six events, that’s for sure. After qualifying for my three individual events and after Olympic trials I sat down with head coach Mark Schubert and my coach, Teri McKeever, and said ‘I don’t think I can do this many, the schedule is too hard and I don’t know. I want to be really good on relays.’ They both talked me through it and talked me into doing all six and I’m so excited that they did, but that was a month out of the Olympic Games I still wasn’t sure what my program was going to be. I’m just trying to take a go-with-the-flow attitude going into these Games and just give it my absolute best.”

Q: Would you consider doing six again or was that just a one-time thing?

NC: “I really don’t think so. I think I’m done with 200s in general. I’d like to focus on the 100s, like the 100 back, the 100 free and maybe 100 fly or something. But like I said, you never know. I do want to do the IM, I just don’t want to do the 200 IM. I wish there was a 100 IM and fortunately they have that in the World Cup schedule, the short course meter schedule, but they haven’t gotten that in the Olympics yet.”

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.