Swim Meet of Champions : Steinseifer Likes Progress; Evans Takes First, Fourth

A mere third-place finish in the 100-meter freestyle was enough to make Carrie Steinseifer giddy Friday at the Mission Viejo International Swim Meet of Champions.

“I am so happy right now, you can’t imagine,” said Steinseifer, a three-time 1984 Olympic gold medalist. “I’ve only been training for two months. So to come here and get third place is really exciting.”

The competition at the Marguerite Recreation Center was her first in more than nine months and her most successful in more than a year.

In ‘84, Steinseifer earned gold medals at the Los Angeles Games when she tied teammate Nancy Hogshead in the 100-meter freestyle and was part of two winning relay teams.

Heady stuff for a 16-year-old entering her senior year at Saratoga High School in Saratoga, Calif.

Four years later, Steinseifer couldn’t even make the final heats at the Olympic trials.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “I swam better than I ever had at the NCAA (championships) that year and felt really good about the trials. . . . I just had a bad week.”

Steinseifer left the sport. Swimming wasn’t fun anymore.

“I thought I was quitting forever,” she said. “I got completely away. I did the sorority thing for a while. . . . I didn’t even go near a pool.” The retirement didn’t last.

After seven months, she had to give it one more chance.

Steinseifer began training two months ago with Pierre Lafountaine, who coaches the Phoenican Swim Club in Phoenix.

In the 100-meter freestyle Friday, Steinseifer started slowly but finished strong. Her time of 58.92 seconds was just behind first-place Kristin Lilly (58.76) and second-place Melanie Valerio (58.78).

In other races Friday, Artur Wojdat set a meet record in the 200-meter freestyle. Wojdat, who competed for Poland in the Olympics, swam a 1:50.65 to break his own record of 1:51.39.

In the women’s competition, Janet Evans won the 400-meter individual medley but finished a distant fourth in the 200 butterfly.

Evans, who won three gold medals in the Olympics last year, swam a 4:51.52 in the individual medley and finished more than six seconds ahead of second-place Laurence Bensimon (4:57.71).

In the butterfly, Evans fell behind early and was never in the race. She finished in 2:19.29. Terri O’Loughlin won in 2:16.84.

“Those are very difficult events,” Evans said. “They are very tiring. It may not have been the best idea to swim both on the same day.”