Janet Evans Invitational Features Olympic Field

Olympic gold medalist Jenny Thompson will try to continue her dominance this weekend at the sixth annual Janet Evans Invitational at the USC McDonald’s Swim Stadium, which begins today at 5 p.m.

Thompson, who during a recent six-week span broke world or American records in five short-course meter events, headlines one of the largest U.S. Grand Prix meets of the year, with more than 700 competitors. The invitational is the last major meet before the U.S. Summer National Championships, which will be held Aug. 6-10 at Minneapolis.

Thompson, regarded by many as the swimmer of the decade, owns the U.S. record in the 100 freestyle in all three formats: 25 yards, 25 meters and 50 meters. At the Short Course World Championships in April, Thompson set a world and two U.S. records, while earning three golds, a silver and the women’s outstanding performer of the meet for the second year in a row.

Amanda Beard, Kristine Quance-Julian, Catherine Fox and Brad Bridgewater are among the other Olympic gold medalists scheduled to compete, along with Lenny Krayzelburg, who won two individual titles at the 1998 World Championships.

Krayzelburg, a former USC standout from Odessa, Russia, won the Phillips Performance Award at the 1998 Summer Nationals and 1999 Spring Nationals for breaking his U.S. record in the 200-meter backstroke. Krayzelburg came close to breaking the world record in March, swimming the second-fastest time in history at 1:56.95.

Beard, who swims for the Irvine Novas, is a U.S. record-holder and winner of three medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Beard will be joined by another local swimming product in Quance-Julian, who swam in four individual events at the 1998 World Championships.

Quance-Julian, who is married to former swimmer Jeff Julian, gave birth to a son, Trenton, in December. Six weeks later, Quance-Julian was back in the water training and now less than eight months later, she is competing at a world-class level.

Most of tonight’s action will be preliminaries, with only timed finals in the 800-meter freestyle. Preliminaries will begin at 9 a.m. and finals start at 5 p.m., Friday through Sunday.