Retirement Suits Evans Just Perfectly

Sun dresses.

That’s what Janet Evans is talking about as she crosses the street, not far from her Brentwood condominium. The sun is shining. The sky is a rich blue, somewhere above the car exhaust.

All of which reminds Evans of the best thing about being a former Olympic swimmer.

“After Atlanta [in 1996], I could go shopping for sun dresses,” Evans said. “I couldn’t wait to lose those manly shoulders so I could buy sun dresses. All my life I wanted to wear them.”

Retirement, at the ripe old age of 29, hasn’t been so bad.

That was Atlanta’s gift to Evans, who swam in three Olympics. It came in a strange package. There was turmoil and tragedy, but no Olympic medals. Evans, though, said she left on her terms, bringing closure to a career few can match.

The five Olympic medals--four gold, one silver--are tucked away in a safe at her parents’ home in Orange County. Her world records in the 400-meter freestyle and 800 freestyle still stand. But those things are now lines on her resume.

“People say, ‘What are you going to do when you grow up,’ ” Evans said, then laughs. “I am grown up. I’m pushing 30.”

Evans lives freeway-close to LAX for far-flung business trips she makes for the many sponsors that still covet her name. She swims occasionally, but for the first time in 16 years she is not training for an Olympics.

With the 2000 Games approaching, there is no tug, no black hole, no worries about unfinished business.

She will be in Sydney, for one of her sponsors, and will go to the swimming events, as a spectator.

“Oh, maybe I’ll need someone to hold my hand during the 800 [freestyle] and tell me, ‘It’s OK that you’re not swimming,’ ” Evans said. “I always knew the day would come.

“It was nice to get the chlorine out of my hair and let my shoulders shrink.”

Sun dresses.

Remember Atlanta

The last time most people saw Evans, big shoulders and all, she was ducking.

When the bomb ripped through Atlanta’s Centennial Park, Evans was nearby, having just finished with her retirement party. She was being interviewed by a German TV reporter.

Two people were killed and more than 100 were injured. Officials have speculated that had the backpack bomb worked as intended, Evans, too, might have been injured. She was that close.

Yet, Evans calls 1996 her favorite Olympics.

Everything started well. Evans took the Olympic torch for a jog around the track, then climbed a ramp to hand it to Muhammad Ali, who lit the Olympic flame.

What followed scorched a little.

She won no medals. She became embroiled in a controversy about whether Irish swimmer Michelle Smith used performance-enhancing drugs. Evans then had a front row seat for one of the more tragic events in Olympic history.

Some parting gifts.

“I was kind of in the middle of everything, wasn’t I?” Evans said.

Yet, Evans holds Atlanta above all the success she had in the two previous Olympics.

“I swam for myself in Atlanta,” she said. “I did the best I could and I was proud of that.”

Out of the Water

Evans received a standing ovation after making the opening speech on the second day of the Olympic trials three weeks ago.

“She was the only one who got a loud and long ovation,” said Mark Schubert, who coached Evans at USC and trained her for the 1992 and ’96 Olympics. “That should send a message to her.

“She is giving back to the sport. For many years, she spoke at our camp at SC. Little girls always leave the room crying. They are so excited that they got a chance to talk with Janet, or get an autograph or just be in the same room.”

That appeal has not gone unnoticed by corporate America.

Evans has not won an Olympic medal since 1992. Yet, her list of sponsors can be found among the Fortune 500--no Tae Bo infomercials for her.

“Janet could have stayed in swimming,” said Barbara Evans, her mother. “But she had nothing left to prove.”

She has made an easy transition from Olympic champion to Olympic icon.

Evans is still on a hectic schedule, it just doesn’t involve chlorine. If she isn’t doing a tour promoting fitness via milk, she’s speaking at youth clinics or corporate seminars.

The only stress is that she is nearing 30. It didn’t help when NBC cameras showed up one day.

“They wanted to do a little piece and I asked what for,” Evans said. “He didn’t know what to say. He started going, ‘It’s for, like, uh, older retired athletes.’ I was so upset.”

The Olympic Spirit

Atlanta was set up to cleanse Evans’ Olympic palate.

She was a child star when she won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics. There was no denying her appeal, a little 16-year-old girl whipping the big and beefy swimmers from the East German machine.

She set a world record in the 400 freestyle (4 minutes 3.85 seconds), breaking her own mark. A year later, she broke her 800 freestyle record. Those records are the oldest on the books.

Four years later in Barcelona, Evans won a gold in the 800 freestyle but was touched out at the wall by Germany’s Dagmar Hase in the 400.

“Janet wanted to keep her coach happy, her parents happy and her public happy,” Schubert said. “When she lost that race, I think she felt like she let everyone down.”

Evans retired after Barcelona. Schubert and obligations brought her back.

The extra nudge was when she and other U.S. athletes lobbied the IOC to give the Games to Atlanta.

“That did it for Janet, she needed to swim in Atlanta after that,” Barbara Evans said.

So Evans circled the track with the torch and climbed the ramp to Ali.

“I was pretty nervous running around the track because I thought I was going to fall,” Evans said. “I could even see the headlines, ‘Swimmer Burns Down Stadium.’

“When I was 16, I didn’t appreciate the Olympics. I thought you went and won gold medals. Eight years later, I realized what an amazing event they are. Winning gold medals is phenomenal, but nothing can ever replace carrying the torch around the stadium.”

Turmoil and Tragedy

Things spiraled from that moment. Evans was asked at a press conference about rumors of Ireland’s Smith--then on her way to three gold medals--using performance enhancing drugs.

“For a split second, I thought, ‘I’m going to say no comment,’ ” Evans said. “Then I thought that might be taken as a snide comment.”

So she said, as always, what she felt. Yes, there was talk, but she didn’t want to spread such rumors. She then needed a Teflon swim suit.

The Irish press went wild. Smith’s father fired back. Even the American media, so long starry-eyed where Evans was concerned, took shots.

Evans said she apologized to Smith at the end of the Olympics.

Two years later, Smith was suspended for tampering with a urine sample and then retired after her appeal was denied.

“Now that she has been caught, people say, ‘So you were right, how do you feel?’ ” Evans said. “I’m not happy about that. I was never ‘right.’ She got caught, that’s all I can say.

“I think I was a target. They needed someone of some sort of profile to pass it on and there I was. I should have said no comment.”

Turmoil was replaced by tragedy.

A retirement party was thrown for Evans in Atlanta on July 27. She hung around afterward, waiting for a TV reporter. In the middle of the interview she felt what she thought was an earthquake.

“I ran downstairs and saw all these people laying there,” Evans said. “We didn’t know what to do. It was all panic.”

Moving On

Atlanta seems like only yesterday to Evans. It’s still a pleasurable memory, with one moment that stands out above the rest.

She finished sixth in the 800 freestyle, her last race, and walked from the pool deck--hobbling because of a broken toe--then stopped. The crowd broke into a long ovation, sending her away with cheers.

“The hardest thing for me was accomplishing so much so young and still having the rest of my life ahead of me,” Evans said. “The feeling that nothing I would do would ever live up to my accomplishments as a swimmer.

“I want to do a little more TV work. Maybe I’ll write a book. I want to continue to motivate kids. I don’t want to win gold medals anymore. I just want to be happy and make a difference. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

It does, at least as much as sun dresses.

Evans laughed and said, “I put a lot of mileage on these shoulders.”