Natalie Coughlin with teammate Madison Kennedy in between swims in Tokyo.

Today’s Friday news is all about the H2O Audio Swimmers.  Both our Ambassador Swimmers, Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin grabbed two nominations in for the 2010 Golden Goggle awards.  Make sure to cast your vote for Natalie and Michael in ‘Athlete of the Year’ and ‘Race of the Year’.  The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony November 22nd in New York.

Also, a quick update on Natalie, she’s finished her three swims in Tokyo and was happy with her performances, check back on Team Tuesday for more details on her FINA World Cup swims.

Natalie Coughlin Twittered a photo of herself doing an easy warm-up swim in Tokyo

Much of team H2O Audio is winding down the competition season, taking some time off and working on training plans.

The exception is H2O Audio swimmer Natalie Coughlin.  Last week she competed in the FINA World Cup meet in Singapore grabbing a gold in the 100 back and a bronze in the 100 fly and 100 IM.  She’s already traveled to Tokyo where she plans on swimming the same three events in the continuation of the FINA World Cup series.

Universal Sports caught up with her in between meets to get her comments on her swims both at the Pan Pacs and the FINA World Cup, find out what she had to say here.

Natalie Coughlin will be in the competition pool again soon.

We had such high hopes of a Crowie three-peat at Kona Ironman this past weekend, but fourth is not so bad either.  It was an upset in both the men’s and women’s race as Chris McCormack took first for the guys and first time Ironman Champion Mirinda Carfrae was the top Ironwoman.

In Olympic distance Tri, our own Greg and Laura Bennett both finished out their season with a solid 9th place finish at the Lifetime Fitness Series event in Dallas on Sunday.

Also, H2O Audio Ambassador Swimmer Natalie Coughlin is going to be back in the competition pool again soon.  According to her Twitter account she just hopped on a plane this morning bound for Singapore to compete in the FINA World Cup on the 16th and 17th of this month.

Dana Vollmer, Rebecca Soni, Jessica Hardy, and Natalie Coughlin, from left, pose after winning the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships

It was another HUGE weekend for H2O Audio swimmers!

The Pan Pacific Championships brought the best swimmers from Australia, Japan, Canada, the US and more to Irvine, California to compete.  Both Natalie Coughlin and Michael Phelps turned in amazing swims with Natalie taking first in the 100 back and 100 free, while sharing first place finishes with fellow Team USA swimmers in the 100 free relay and 100 medley relay.  Michael Phelps took his usual first place spot in the 100 and 200 fly, and also shared victory with his Team USA counterparts in the 100 and 200 free relays and the 100 medley relay.  So, a very successful event for Team H2O Audio swimmers!  You can find full results and coverage of the meet here.

Also this past weekend, Team H2O Audio triathletes Greg and Laura Bennett continue their month of competing in Europe with the Lausanne ITU Elite Sprint Triathlon World Championships. The Bennetts were not expecting this to be one of their bigger races this season and Greg was happy with his 25th place finish.  While Laura woke up on competition day not feeling well and much to her disappointment, had to skip the race.

Slater Trout, paddling his way towards a 2nd place finish at the SEA NY event.

It’s another big week for the swimming world!  The Pan Pacific Swim meet starts tomorrow and runs through the weekend.  Both Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin are representing the US and are using this meet and an important step in training for the 2012 Olympics.  Portions of the meet will be televised on Universal Sports if you want to cheer on Natalie and Michael from your living room.

H2O Audio Triathletes, Greg and Laura Bennett kicked off a month of racing in Europe with the ITU Kitzbuehel race this past weekend.  Laura turned in a very strong performance finishing 8th while Greg finished 25th, not bad for his first race post illness.  We’re always so proud of our favorite triathlete couple!

And finally, H2O Audio paddler Slater Trout finished the 28 mile paddle around Manhattan last weekend in 2nd place.  High winds, crazy tides and boat traffic were just a few obstacles in the S.E.A Paddle NYC fund raising race for Autism.  Always the competitor, Slater blames his second place finish on a “tactical error”.  You can read more about the race in his blog.  Over-all more than $260,000 was raised for Autism through this event.