She Who Laughs Last: Janet Evans : Placentia’s Petite Swimmer Surprises at Goodwill Games

It was the first day of the Goodwill Games in Moscow and Janet Evans of Placentia was preparing for her first event in her first international meet.

The 5-foot 2-inch, 85-pound swimmer, who will be a sophomore at El Dorado High School this fall, walked past a few of the Soviet swimmers, who took one look at this tiny American and began to laugh.

Bad move.

Evans, 14, went on to record her best time ever in the 800-meter freestyle (8:38.07), finishing in third place behind Leslie Daland and Kathy Hettche, to complete an American sweep of the event.

She won another bronze medal in the 1,500 freestyle, recording a personal-best time of 16:24.92, and added a fifth-place finish in the 400 freestyle and a sixth-place finish in the 400 individual medley.

“After the 800, they weren’t laughing anymore,” Evans said.

It was Evans who had the last laugh, but you can’t really blame the Soviets for their reaction. Evans doesn’t strike an imposing figure around the pool.

But what she lacks in size, she makes up for in speed and endurance. Evans is usually last off the blocks, and she loses time on the turns to the bigger, stronger swimmers. But the water is her great equalizer.

There, she displays the stroke that her high school coach, Tom Milich, likens to the motion of a Cuisinart.

“Once she gets those arms going a million miles per hour, she never slows down,” Milich said. “She probably takes five strokes to another girl’s two.”

Actually, Evans takes 55 strokes for every 50 meters. Most middle- and long-distance swimmers take 40 strokes per lap.

“I turn it over pretty fast,” Evans said.

Her best event is the 1,500 freestyle, in which she has been ranked as high as seventh in the world this year. The longer the race, the better for Evans.

“Everyone else dies, but I can keep going,” she said.

She has been on the go all summer. The day after Evans completed her freshman year at El Dorado (June 22), she boarded a plane for Orlando, Fla., and the World Championship Trials.

She competed in three events, finishing third in the 400 IM, fourth in the 800 freestyle and ninth in the 400 freestyle. The first two finishers in each event qualified for the World Championships, to be held in August in Spain, and the third and fourth finishers went to Moscow.

There were no trials for the 1,500 freestyle at Orlando. Peter Daland, the U.S. swim coach, chose Evans to compete in that event in Moscow. And despite her ninth-place finish in the 400 freestyle at the World Championship Trials, Daland let her swim the event again in the Goodwill Games.

Evans spent nine days in Florida and then went to the Soviet Union for a 10-day stay.

“I really haven’t had a summer vacation yet,” Evans said.

It doesn’t get any easier. Evans returned home Wednesday night and took one day off, but she was back in the pool at 5 a.m. Friday, stroking through her 13,000-meters-a-day workout in preparation for the U.S. Outdoor Nationals, which will be held in three weeks in Santa Clara.

Evans, who has been swimming competitively since she was 5, now trains with the Fullerton Aquatic Sports Team under the direction of Coach Bud McAllister.

She doesn’t mind the early hours and the hard work. She’s just glad to be home, training with her friends in familiar surroundings.

She enjoyed her trip to the Soviet Union, but she admits she got a little homesick. She missed her family, friends--and American food.

“In Moscow, we had the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner--rice and potatoes,” Evans said. “When I got back, I had a big piece of chocolate cake, and my mom fixed pancakes when I got up the next morning.”

Evans lost a few pounds while in Moscow, but, with a return to a more “normal” diet, she hopes to gain them back. She also hopes that, with a few more inches and a few more pounds added to her body, she’ll have a shot at the 1988 Olympics.