Evans Is Home Free With Victory in 400

The old lady can still win the big ones.

Janet Evans, the grande dame of American swimming at age 24, won a trip to her third consecutive Olympics with a resounding victory over teenage rival Brooke Bennett in the 400-meter freestyle Friday night.

Jessica Foschi again failed to make the Olympic team after a fifth-place finish, leaving a possible doping dilemma for U.S. Swimming in limbo until her final event Sunday.

“I didn’t feel the same nerves and butterflies this time,” said Foschi, who was ninth in the 200 free Thursday. “I thought it felt great.”

Foschi, whose positive drug test led to a two-month battle to compete in the U.S. trials for the Atlanta Games, was never a factor. She was seventh at the halfway point and eventually moved up to take fifth.

“I could see a few people on the last 100, so I put my head in and went for it,” she said. “My third 100 was a little off. It usually is because I’m thinking of my last 100.”

Evans snapped Bennett’s six-race winning streak in the 400 free, and temporarily regained the edge over the 15-year-old who humiliated Evans in last summer’s national championships at Pasadena.

Last August, Bennett broke Evans’ eight-year winning streak in the 800 free and also trounced her in the 400.

“I feel like I made a statement,” Evans said. “I know I can still win a close race and I still have it.”

Evans trailed Cristina Teuscher throughout the race before pulling away to victory with 30 meters remaining. Evans finished in 4 minutes 10.97 seconds--well behind her world record of 4:03.85 set in the 1988 Olympics.

“I have a lot of pressure taken off of me because the whole thing of making the team is over,” said Evans, who became only the fourth woman to make three consecutive Olympic teams.

Teuscher was second in 4:11.59 and Trina Jackson third.

Bennett, the brash 15-year-old who has questioned Evans’ courage, never threatened and finished fourth in 4:13.81.

“I’m forgetting about the 400 and I’m going for the 800,” she said through a U.S. Swimming spokesman. “I’ll be there.”

So will Evans and Foschi. The trio goes against each other Sunday in the 800 freestyle preliminaries. The top two finishers in each event qualify for the Atlanta Games.

Even if she qualifies for Atlanta, Foschi’s ability to compete remains uncertain pending a decision on her eligibility by FINA, the world governing body. Her parents have sued U.S. Swimming and its board of directors.

Tom Malchow of St. Paul, Minn., overtook Mel Stewart going into the final lap and upset the defending Olympic champion in the 200 breaststroke.

Malchow won in 1:57.39, and Ray Carey qualified for Atlanta by finishing second. Stewart faded to third in 1:57.89.

Jon Olsen, a 1992 Olympian, and Gary Hall Jr., the son of a three-time Olympian, finished 1-2 in the 100 freestyle.

Lea Loveless, another 1992 Olympian making a comeback in the trials, was sixth in the 100 backstroke.

Whitney Hedgepeth, whose last Olympics was the 1988 Games, won in 1:01.51. Beth Botsford was second.

In this most nerve-wracking American swim meet, Foschi said she was feeling happier and more comfortable as the week went on.

“I don’t think it gets much easier. I definitely get more used to things,” she said earlier Friday.

Foschi’s time of 4:15.42 seconds placed her seventh among the eight qualifiers in the morning preliminary. She was more than a second slower than her lifetime best of 4:14.37.

Evans led the preliminary field in 4:11.77, with Bennett fourth.

Teuscher and Jackson already are on the Olympic team after finishing 1-2 in the 200 freestyle.

If Foschi is troubled by the hostility her presence has created, she doesn’t discuss it. “I just want to have fun. This is such a great experience,” she said.

Evans criticized U.S. Swimming earlier this week for allowing Foschi to compete in the trials after the teenager tested positive for steroids in last summer’s national championships.

The sport’s governing body reversed its two-year ban on Foschi, and gave her a two-year suspension, clearing the way for her to compete.

That irritated Evans, who called U.S. Swimming’s decision “a whole step backward.”

“I am ashamed and embarrassed to be part of an organization that can’t stand up for what it believes in,” she said.

But she and Foschi met for the first time after the 400 final to exchange congratulations.

“I told her what I said wasn’t anything personal, and she said, ‘I understand,”’ Evans said.