At 5-3, She Reaches New Heights Every Time She Hits the Water : Janet Evans Discovers Little by Little She Can Stand Up to Any Field

U.S. swimmers are still standing--as they have been since 1976--in the large shadow of the powerful East Germans.

So it is somehow fitting that one of the best young American prospects literally stands in their shadows. That’s what happens when 5-foot 3-inch, 92-pound Janet Evans takes the blocks next to women ranging from five to nine inches taller and 25 to 60 pounds heavier.

Much has been made of her stature, or, actually, lack thereof. But unless nature takes a drastic turn, this will continue, much to Evans’ chagrin.

“They keep saying, ‘How can you do it when you’re so little?’ ” said Evans, a sophomore at El Dorado High School in Placentia. “It annoys me a little bit. Who cares as long as I can swim?”

Never mind that the popular story line of little versus big has been around since the days of David and Goliath.

Before her first venture in international competition last summer, the Goodwill Games in Moscow, several Soviet swimmers looked at Evans and started to laugh. She fled and returned with a taller male swimmer, to feel more secure.

That, however, was the beginning of her prominence as a swimmer. Starting at the Goodwill Games, Evans began leaving people behind, rather than the other way around.

In Moscow, she collected bronze medals in the 800-meter freestyle (8 minutes 38.07 seconds) and the 1,500 freestyle (16:24.92).

Late last year, Evans won the 400-meter freestyle (4:11.06), the 400-meter individual medley (4:45.81), and the 800-meter freestyle (8:32.85) at the U.S. Open in Orlando, Fla.

Her most recent accomplishments came two weeks ago at an event in which she was not expected to shine--the U.S. Short Course Nationals in Boca Raton, Fla.

Evans won three of the four events she entered, taking the meet’s high-point trophy in the women’s division. Her margin of victory was seven seconds in the 1,650-yard freestyle (15:56.53) and four seconds in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:32.59). Evans also won the 400-yard individual medley (4:12.32) and finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle (4:43.87).

“For her to win the high point at the short course was really an accomplishment,” said Bud McAllister, her coach at Fullerton Aquatics.

For Evans, the struggle against taller and heavier swimmers is even more pronounced at short-course events. Because there are twice as many turns, she can sometimes lose as much as two feet on one turn against a 6-foot opponent. Short-course events are held in a 25-meter pool as opposed to the 50-meter pools used in long-course meets.

“I don’t know why,” said Evans, when asked why she performed above expectations. “Good coaching. . . . I worked really hard. And in the IM (individual medley), I worked a lot on my butterfly.”

McAllister, who has coached Evans for the last year and a half, has said it is hard for him to predict how Evans will perform in competition.

This is because her times have been dropping at a phenomenal rate. At the U.S. Open, she took four seconds off her best 400-meter freestyle time and six off her 400-meter individual medley time. There was more of the same at the short-course event as Evans finished with her best times in the three events she won.

“She has the ability to go to a higher level in competition,” McAllister said. “She’ll do what it takes to win. She’s tenacious. If it’s close, she’ll win nine out of 10 races.

“In the last year, she’s dropped almost 30 seconds in the 1,000 (freestyle). Now, that’s going to level off, because if she dropped 30 more seconds, it would place her in the top eight of the men. She’s getting close to the limit. I would expect some records, American and world.”

McAllister doesn’t want to give the wrong impression, though. He and Evans don’t talk about records or say she’ll do this and that in the 1988 Olympics. Evans is aware how quickly things can change in swimming. One bad race can mean the difference between first and eighth.

For now, though, she is getting used to being regarded as someone at high school. A kid at the local pool recently told Evans, “Now I know another famous person.” And when she returned to El Dorado from Boca Raton, there was a sign posted for her: “We’re Proud of You.”

“I’m excited,” Evans said. “It’s going to be a challenge. Now that people are watching, it’s almost like you have something to prove.”