Editing Janet Evans (section)

==Olympics==

===1988 Olympics===
At the [[1988 Summer Olympics]] in Seoul, South Korea, she won three individual gold medals in the 400 and 800-meter freestyle and the 400-meter Individual Medley. At the games, she earned the nickname "Miss Perpetual Motion" due to her unique swimming style.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.times-olympics.co.uk/communities/swimming/swimminghistory.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20001210174400/http://www.times-olympics.co.uk/communities/swimming/swimminghistory.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2000-12-10 |title=News UK |publisher=Times-olympics.co.uk |access-date=2017-04-25}}</ref> In these Olympics, Evans set a new world record in the 400-meter freestyle event. This record stood for 18 years until France's [[Laure Manaudou]] broke it in May 2006.<ref name=Olympedia>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/51014|title=Olympedia bio, Janet Evans|website=olympedia.org|access-date=11 November 2024}}</ref>

Evans held the 1,500-meter freestyle record, set in March 1988, through June 2007, when it was broken by American [[Kate Ziegler]] with her time of 15:42.54.<ref name=Olympedia/>

Evans held the world record in the 800-meter freestyle, 8:16:22, that she set in August 1989, until it was broken by [[Rebecca Adlington]] of Britain in August 2008.  Adlington set the new record with her time of 8:14.10 in winning the race at the [[2008 Summer Olympics]].  Evans's 800-meter record was one of the longest-standing ones ever in swimming, and it went unbroken through four Olympic Games (1992–2004). Only the 100-meter freestyle swimming record set by the Dutch swimmer [[Willy den Ouden]] stood longer—from 1936 through 1956, during a period when international competition was interrupted by world war.<ref name=Olympedia/>

Following her 1988 Olympics performance, Evans continued to dominate the world's long-distance swimming competitions, remaining undefeated in all of the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter freestyle events for over five years.<ref name=ishof/>

===1992 Olympics===
Evans became the first woman to capture back-to-back Olympic and world championship titles in any one swimming event by winning the 1988 and 1992 Olympic gold medals and the 1991 and 1994 world championships in the 800-meter freestyle race.  At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she won a silver in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:07.37, taking second, and finished about .2 seconds behind German swimmer [[Dagmar Hase]], whom she led for almost the entire competition but was narrowly caught at the end. Evans had held the record in the 400 since the 1988 Olympics, but her times in the event had been continually slowing.  At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she also won a gold in the 800-meter freestyle in 8:25.52, another signature distance event, finishing nearly 5 seconds ahead of Australia's Haley Lewis.<ref name=Olympedia/><ref name=success/><ref name=ishof/>

Evans won the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle events at the U.S. National Championships 12 times each, the largest number of national titles in one event by an American swimmer in the 100-year history of the competition.<ref name=ishof/>

===1996 Olympics===
Evans ended her swimming career, for all practical purposes, at the [[1996 Summer Olympics]] in Atlanta, Georgia. She did not win any medals, but she did add one more highlight to her life.  She was given the honour of carrying the Olympic torch in the opening ceremony, handing it to the American boxing legend [[Muhammad Ali]] who lit the Olympic cauldron.<ref name=Olympedia/>

On July 27, 1996, she was in a building being interviewed by a German newsman when [[Centennial Olympic Park bombing|a bomb]] exploded nearby. The explosion very lightly shook the building and startled Evans. The incident traumatized her so much that she had a panic attack the next day while waiting for a train in an Atlanta subway station.<ref name=success>{{cite web |title=Evans' success stood test of time |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2008/06/03/evans-success-stood-test-of-time/ |date= June 3, 2008 |publisher=[[Orange County Register]] |access-date=May 12, 2022}}</ref>

In 1996 Olympic heats, Evans finished ninth in the preliminaries of the 400-meter freestyle.  She did not qualify for the finals, as only the top eight finishers advance to the next level.  In the final swim of her career, Evans finished in sixth place in the 800-meter freestyle.<ref name=Olympedia/>

At the 1996 Atlanta Games, American swimming officials criticized Ireland's [[Michelle Smith]] about her unexpected gold medals,<ref>{{cite web |title=Speedo USA - Janet Evans Olympic Gold Medalist |url=https://socialbilitty.com/2014/03/janet-evans-olympic-gold-medalist/ |date=March 13, 2014 |publisher=Socialbilitty.com|access-date=May 31, 2017}}</ref> suggesting that she might have been using performance-enhancing drugs.  When asked about the accusations, Evans said that when anyone like Smith showed such a significant improvement, "there's always that question."  American sportswriters sympathetic to Smith took this comment to mean that Evans was accusing Smith of steroid use as well,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Under Suspicion After Winning Three Gold Medals In Atlanta, Irish Swimmer Michelle Smith Should Be A Big Star--But Too Many People Believe That Her Victories Were Drug-Aided |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1997/04/14/8113121/under-suspicion-after-winning-three-gold-medals-in-atlanta-irish-swimmer-michelle-smith-should-be-a-big-starbut-too-many-people-believe-that-her-victories-were-drugaided |date=April 14, 1997 |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |access-date=May 31, 2017}}</ref> and they attacked Evans as being a sore loser.  Evans later insisted that she meant no such accusation and that her remarks were taken out of context.  In 1998, Smith received a four-year suspension for tampering with a urine sample.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/the-con-of-michelle-smith-how-the-irish-lass-cheated-the-swimming-world/ |title=The Con of Michelle Smith: How the Irish Lass Cheated the Swimming World |work=Swimming World Magazine |last=Lohn |first=John |date=July 10, 2021 |access-date=August 25, 2021 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518132732/https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/the-con-of-michelle-smith-how-the-irish-lass-cheated-the-swimming-world/ |archive-date=May 18, 2021 }}</ref>

===2012 Olympic trials===
In June 2011, it was reported that Evans was in the process of a comeback and had been training for six months with the goal of competing at the [[2012 United States Olympic Trials (swimming)|2012 U.S. Olympic Trials]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2011-06-12-Janet-Evans-comeback_n.htm |title=Janet Evans setting records in comeback attempt |last=Michaelis |first=Vicki |date=June 12, 2011 |work=USA Today |access-date=June 17, 2011}}</ref> At the 2012 Olympic Trials, at the age of 40, she finished 80th out of 113 swimmers in the 400-meter freestyle<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/olympics/summer/2012/swimming/story/_/id/8098878/janet-evans-fails-reach-400-freestyle-final-us-olympic-swimming-trials |title=Janet Evans fails to reach 400 freestyle final at U.S. Olympic swimming trials |publisher=Espn.go.com |date=2012-06-26 |access-date=2017-04-25}}</ref> and 53rd out of 65 swimmers in the 800-meter freestyle.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/olympics/summer/2012/swimming/story/_/id/8116175/janet-evans-40-misses-800-qualifying-ending-comeback |title=2012 Olympics - Janet Evans, 40, misses 800 qualifying, ending comeback |publisher=Espn.go.com |date=2012-06-30 |access-date=2017-04-25}}</ref>

At the end of Evans's swimming career, she held seven world records, five Olympic medals (including four gold medals), and 45 American national titles – third only to [[Tracy Caulkins]] and [[Michael Phelps]]. She was the first American woman to win four individual Olympic gold medals in swimming.<ref name=ishof>{{cite web|url=https://ishof.org/honoree/honoree-janet-evans/|title=Janet Evans, Honor Swimmer, International Swimming Hall of Fame|website=ishof.org|access-date=11 November 2024}}</ref>