Janet Evans

Janet Evans

Personal information
Full name	Janet Beth Evans
Nickname(s)	Beth
Nationality	American
Born	August 28, 1971 (1971-08-28) Fullerton, California, U.S.
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight	119 pounds (54 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Medal record Women's swimming Competitor for the United States Olympic Games Gold 1988 Seoul 400 m freestyle Gold 1988 Seoul 800 m freestyle Gold 1988 Seoul 400 m medley Gold 1992 Barcelona 800 m freestyle Silver 1992 Barcelona 400 m freestyle World Championships (LC) Gold 1991 Perth 400 m freestyle Gold 1991 Perth 800 m freestyle Gold 1994 Rome 800 m freestyle Silver 1991 Perth 200 m freestyle Bronze 1994 Rome 4x200 m freestyle Pan Pacific Championships Gold 1987 Brisbane 400 m freestyle Gold 1987 Brisbane 400 m medley Gold 1989 Tokyo 400 m freestyle Gold 1989 Tokyo 800 m freestyle Gold 1989 Tokyo 400 m medley Gold 1989 Tokyo 4x200 m freestyle Gold 1991 Edmonton 400 m freestyle Gold 1991 Edmonton 800 m freestyle Gold 1991 Edmonton 4x200 m freestyle Gold 1993 Kobe 400 m freestyle Gold 1993 Kobe 800 m freestyle Gold 1993 Kobe 4x200 m freestyle Silver 1987 Brisbane 800 m freestyle Silver 1991 Edmonton 200 m freestyle World Championships (SC) Gold 1993 Palma 400 m freestyle Gold 1993 Palma 800 m freestyle

Janet Beth Evans (born August 28, 1971) is an American competitive swimmer who specializes in distance freestyle. She recently announced her comeback to the sport with intentions to swim in the 2012 Olympic Trials .

Biography

Born in Fullerton, California, Evans grew up in neighboring Placentia, where she started swimming competitively as a child. By the age of 11, she was setting National Age Group records in distance events. After graduating from El Dorado High School, she attended Stanford University and the University of Texas before graduating from the University of Southern California in 1994 with a degree in communication.

Evans was distinctive for her unorthodox "windmill" stroke and her apparently inexhaustible cardiorespiratory reserves. Slight of build and short of stature, she more than once found herself competing and winning against bigger and stronger athletes, some of whom were subsequently found to have been using performance-enhancing drugs.

Janet Evans was the 1989 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

She was named the Female World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine in 1987, 1989, and 1990.

Since her retirement from competitive swimming, Evans has been a motivational speaker and corporate spokesperson for companies such as AT&T, Speedo, Campbell's, PowerBar, John Hancock, Cadillac, and Xerox. In 2008, Evans competed on the NBC show Celebrity Circus.

Evans has been married to Billy Wilson since 2004. In 2006 they had a daughter. She also has a one-year old son. In 2010, Evans returned to competitive swimming in Masters swimming.

Career

In 1987, she broke the world records in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyle events. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, she won three gold medals and earned the nickname "Miss Perpetual Motion". In the games, she set a new world record in the 400-meter freestyle event; this record would hold for 18 years until Laure Manaudou broke it in May 2006. Until June 2007, Evans held the 1,500-meter freestyle record (set in March 1988) when it was broken by Kate Ziegler with a time of 15:42.54. Evans' world record of 8:16.22 in the 800-meter freestyle, set in August 1989, was broken in August 2008 at the Beijing Olympics by Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain with a time of 8:14.10. The 800-meter freestyle record was one of the longest standing ever in the sport of swimming, lasting through four Olympic Games. Only the 100-meter freestyle record of the Dutch swimmer Willy den Ouden stood longer (1936–1956).

Following her 1988 performance, Evans continued to dominate the American and world distance scene. She became the first woman ever to win back-to-back Olympic and World Championship titles in any event, taking the 1988 and 1992 Olympic titles and the 1991 and 1994 World titles in the 800-meter freestyle.

She won the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle at the U.S. National Championships 12 times each, the most national titles in one event by any swimmer in the 100-year history of the event.

Her career ended with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She did not win a medal, but she added one more highlight to her career, when she was given the honor of carrying the Olympic Torch at the Opening Ceremony, handing the torch to U.S. Olympic boxing legend Muhammad Ali to light the cauldron. In the pool, she finished ninth in the prelims of the 400-meter freestyle. She didn't qualify for the finals (nor the B finals), as only the top eight times advance. In the final swim of her career, Evans finished sixth in the 800-meter freestyle.

At the Atlanta Games, Evans outspokenly criticized Ireland's Michelle Smith on the latter's unexpected gold medals, suggesting that she might have been using performance enhancing drugs in the Olympics. Smith was not considered a favorite entering the Games, and her husband and coach Erik de Bruin had failed a drug test in 1993. Indeed, from 1996–97, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) raised concerns about Smith's repeated unavailability for random out-of-competition testing, and Smith received a four-year suspension in 1998 after being found guilty of tampering with a urine sample. However, Smith's medals and records from Atlanta were allowed to stand.

At the end of her career, she held seven world records, five Olympic medals (including four gold), and 45 U.S. national titles — third only to Tracy Caulkins and Michael Phelps.

In June 2011, it was announced that Evans is in the process of a comeback and has been training for six months. Her potential goal is the 2012 Olympic Trials.

See also

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists

External links

• Official website
• Janet Evans Official Bio
• Janet Evans Gold Medal Greats Page
• IOC profile
• Janes Evans – Entry at the International Swimming Hall of Fame (retrieved 2009-12-7)
• Janet Evans at the Internet Movie Database

References

Records
Preceded by Tracey Wickham Anke Möhring	Women's 800 metres freestyle world record holder (long course) July 27, 1987 – August 19, 1987 March 22, 1988 – August 16, 2008	Succeeded by Anke Möhring Rebecca Adlington
Preceded by Kim Linehan	Women's 1500 metres freestyle world record holder (long course) July 31, 1987 – June 17, 2007	Succeeded by Kate Ziegler
Preceded by Tracey Wickham	Women's 400 metres freestyle world record holder (long course) December 20, 1987 – May 12, 2006	Succeeded by Laure Manaudou
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Kristin Otto Kristin Otto	World Swimmer of the Year 1987 1989 – 1990	Succeeded by Kristin Otto Krisztina Egerszegi
Preceded by Mary T Meagher	World American Swimmer of the Year 1987–1991	Succeeded by Summer Sanders