Atlanta Was a Special Olympics for Evans

Swimmer Janet Evans won three gold medals and set a world record at the 1988 Olympics, and she won a silver and a gold in 1992. At Atlanta in 1996, she finished sixth and ninth in her two races -- and had the time of her life.

“It was the most fun I ever had at an Olympics,” Evans said at the Special Olympics “Breakfast With Champions” on Saturday at Long Beach State.

She said she realized why after hearing Special Olympics athlete Dustin Plunkett speak at the Wooden Classic dinner last December.

“He said the best part about Special Olympics is simply competing and cheering on your teammates, and that everyone feels like a champion,” Evans said.

“At Atlanta, where I got to hand the torch to Muhammad Ali in the opening ceremony and enjoyed just competing, I felt like a champion. That’s why the athletes here are all champions.”

A big difference: Evans said in 1992 at Barcelona that she felt like a loser after coming in second in the 400-meter freestyle by 0.19 of a second.

“The first question at the press conference after the race was, ‘How does it feel to lose?’ ” she said.

A winning smile: Special Olympics chairman Pat McClenahan said of Evans: “If there were an event for smiling, she would always win the gold medal.”

Trivia time: When the Lakers won consecutive NBA titles in 1987 and ‘88, defeating the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons in the Finals, it was the first time a team had accomplished the feat since the Celtics in 1968 and ’69. How long was it before another team won back-to-back titles?

Makes sense: Charles Barkley, to Golf World magazine, on whether golfers are athletes: “Golf is technique. You can go to the corner 7-Eleven store, take the fat, bald guy from behind the counter and teach him to play golf. But you ain’t going to teach him to make the NBA.”

Foul play: The story goes that Arnold Palmer and Ted Williams once argued about which is more difficult, hitting a baseball or playing golf.

After Williams made a convincing argument about hitting a round object traveling at 100 mph with another round object, Palmer said, “Yeah, but you don’t have to go up in the stands and play your foul balls.”

And then this: Because of Smarty Jones’ failure at the Belmont, Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post has changed his thinking and believes winning the Triple Crown of horse racing may be the hardest thing to do in sports.

“I used to think it was getting group dental coverage for the NHL Players Assn.,” he wrote.

Trivia answer: The Pistons won titles the next two seasons, defeating the Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers in the Finals.

And finally: Michael Ventre of MSNBC.com, on possible concessions to construction delays at Athens: “Organizers are asking gymnasts if they think they could get by with just one parallel bar.”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.