Award to Evans Is Local, but Her Impact Is Global

Janet Evans, a world-record setting swimmer from El Dorado High School in Placentia, was honored as the Southern California Woman Athlete of the Year by the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles Thursday as a part of the local celebration of the second annual National Women in Sports Day.

Evans had a big year in 1987, breaking the three oldest swimming records. At the U.S. Long Course meet at Clovis, Calif., last summer, she broke the 800-meter freestyle world record that had been set by Australia’s Tracey Wickham in 1978 and the 1,500-meter freestyle world record that had been set by Kim Linehan in 1979. And, at the U.S. Open in Orlando, she broke the 400-meter freestyle world record that Wickham set in ’78.

The award was presented by Anita DeFrantz, president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation. DeFrantz is also a member of the International Olympic Committee.

Before presenting the award, DeFrantz spoke on the need for good coaches, saying: “Our nation is in desperate need of leaders who can inspire people to achieve . . . who will accept the challenge to be a coach and to work for the future.”

Pat Connolly, a track star of the ‘60, ’64 and ’68 Olympics who is now a coach, also spoke about coaching in a short but fiery address that reflected her frustration in the way men and women in sports are treated. She noted, for example, a billboard near the USC campus of Coach George Raveling and wondered, aloud, where she might find a billboard of women’s coach Linda Sharp.

She also made a quick anti-drug plea.

Olympian Rita Crockett announced that Wendy Rush of Stanford had been named the winner of the Professional Volleyball Assn.’s Flo Hyman Award.