Evans Takes Aim at Matching Blair’s Five Gold Medals

The great ones have extremely long memories.

If Martina Navratilova said something uncomplimentary about Chris Evert and it was printed in a neighborhood weekly newspaper, there’s a strong chance Evert would find out and never forget it. A Canadian reporter once wrote that Wayne Gretzky was skating as though he had a “piano on his back,” and Gretzky promptly tore through the Toronto Maple Leafs in the next game.

And we all remember what Michael Jordan did a year after a disrespectful Orlando Magic player razzed him early in his 1995 comeback tour.

Brooke Bennett, meet Janet Evans.

Bennett’s trash may have been talked more than a year ago, and was relatively tame, but it’s one of those affronts that can truly never be totally forgotten by the woman who is trying to tie or surpass speedskater Bonnie Blair’s record of five gold medals by an American woman.

“I know I can beat her,” Bennett declared at the Pan Am Games in March of 1995. “There’s somebody behind her--somebody coming to take her place. I think she’s a little scared here.”

Quickly and curtly, Evans responded by noting that when she was Bennett’s age, she already owned two world records. Bennett, 15 then, owned one pot-bellied pig.

Evans, now 24, won three golds at the 1988 Olympics, a gold and a silver in 1992 and still holds world records in the 400-meter freestyle, the 800 freestyle and the 1,500 freestyle.

But it seems some people never learn. A decade ago, East Germans laughed at Evans’ diminutive stature, but quit chuckling in her wake.

“She holds onto the positive things, but if someone says something that’s not too nice, she holds onto that and it really motivates her,” said Mark Schubert, Evans’ coach. “She remembers in practice every day. The Australian press almost try to create situations that motivate Janet. They’ve helped me a lot.”

Evans, who has been unfailingly gracious to her competitors, has rarely failed to make a statement in the pool. She won the 400 freestyle at the U.S. trials in 4 minutes 10.97 seconds, easily beating Bennett, who finished fourth in 4:13.81.

The other top contenders in the 400 are American Cristina Teuscher, Claudia Poll of Costa Rica and German Dagmar Hase, who narrowly edged Evans at Barcelona.

Evans was second to Bennett in the 800 freestyle, and the only other real competition in the event in Atlanta would seem to come from Australia’s Hayley Lewis.

“After ‘92, I didn’t think I’d ever come back. I thought I had done it all and had my fill of success,” Evans said. “There was something that brought me back. I wanted to end on a better note. There were times where I wondered whether I’d even make the team. Mark [Schubert] and I decided [to try to come back] a year at a time. After the ’94 World Championships, there was no doubt in my mind about trying for a third Olympics. I didn’t want to look back when I’m 40 and say I didn’t try.”

Schubert believes Atlanta will be easier for Evans, in some ways, than the Barcelona Olympics.

“I think Janet is really looking at this as much better situation for her than it was in Barcelona just because there is not the pressure and the expectations,” he said.

“Quite frankly, she’s swimming very well. There’s a joy there that I didn’t see four years ago. The joy is the fact she’s been able to make this team and swim the Games in the United States, which has been kind of a dream for her.”