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U.S. TEAM OLYMPIC TRIALS: SWIMMINGJune 30, 2012Janet EvansOMAHA, NEBRASKA Q.  What are you most proudest of? JANET EVANS: I'm just proud of doing it, you know, I'm proud of the courage to try. You know what I mean? I think it's easy to think, wow, I could do this and yeah, I used to be a good swimmer and yeah, they're going fast but I could do it, too. I think it's easy to sit at home or sit in the stands and say that but I'm just proud of the courage that it took, you know, I really am. Gettin' out of bed every morning and not giving up, I don't know. I could have slept in every day and taken my five year old to preschool, you know? But I chose not to, so that's what I'm proud of. Q. Janet, first of all, thank you, on behalf of all of us geezers. Thank you. JANET EVANS: Still younger than you, John. Q. Yes, you are! When I was sitting in the audience we heard a lot of strong applause for you before the introduction at the start of the race and a huge applause at the end of your race. Did you hear that as well? JANET EVANS: Yeah, I also heard it in my 400, so of course it meant a lot to me. Yeah, I think people that understand the sport of swimming understand that and they understand what it takes. I think they also understand what it takes to swim an 800. It's a long race, you know? So they get it. I love swimming fans. Who gets our sport better than the people that come to Omaha to watch us swim? Q. Can you take us through the race? What's going through your mind after the first 100, and 200, and people are moving ahead and you're probably thinking you want to pick them off and trying to find another gear? JANET EVANS: I never in this whole two years of swimming, I don't think, found my base, found my endurance, so the 800 was always harder for me man the 400, and I think that's just as a result of age. I just don't‑‑ I think swimming for four minutes is different than swimming for eight. That's what I was experiencing. Q. Janet, when you see the lists and you're still up there as the third fastest, all time and the US Record Holder 23 years later, what does that mean to you? Also, given that another swimmer your age is trying this in the sprints and has had more success, did you ever think of going down to the 200 or the 100 as you got older? JANET EVANS: Phil, you know me better than that, first of all. Having the American Record, at 8:16, it was so easy then? How is it so easy then? I have no idea how I could go an 8:16, are you kidding me? Come on. Somebody said to me the other day, "Can you go a 8:16?" and I think I said to you guys, for the 400, yeah, for like a 7:50! I forget that my American Record stands in this event so, yeah, it's still amazing. And, Phil, I cannot swim a 200 and a 100 and a 50, are you kidding me? So I never thought of that. You know me better than that; can't sprint to save my life. I wish I could but I can't. Q. Janet, was there a moment when you started this, hoping that you would get to London, was there a moment along the way that this was‑‑ Ed Moses had it about a month ago, that it hit him this was probably not going to work out, but was there a moment that you said, "I'm not going to get to that time I need"? JANET EVANS: I think Mark Schubert spoke about it after the 400 when we had a small get‑together with a few of my favorite press friends. There was a meet last Augustin Mission Viejo where I went 9 minutes, and Mark said, "You can quit now," and I was like, "I'm not going to quit," but I realized in a year to drop 30, 40 seconds at the age of 39, it wasn'tgoing ‑‑ but you just never know. And for me it became more about than making the Olympic Team. It became about being a mom to my kids and doing something for myself, and inspiring others to have the courage to do something they're scared of doing, or something that's outside of their comfort zone, so I think it became bigger than making the Olympic Team. I think it stood for more than that. When you look at my times here, obviously I wanted to swim faster, and I swam faster all season so who knows what happened with that, but at the end of the day that doesn't matter. I think it's about trying something, you know, and doing it, and being proud of what you've done. Q. It seems like you're struck by the journey to get here. When you were in your prime bustin' out the records, what did the journey mean to you then, or were you so caught up in kickin' people's butts and getting the records? What was it like for you back then? JANET EVANS: Look, I mean, we're all‑‑ I'm sitting here as your peer, so do you guys remember your journey at 16, 20, 24? I don't think it was a journey; it was what I did. You know, I spent my whole life swimming, I went to college on a scholarship, I went on my third Olympics in Atlanta. It was a journey in the sense that I was going through the motions and I was representing my country, and I was swimming well and winning gold medals, but I was a kid. It was what I did; it was all I knew. It didn't take that much courage, because I was a fast swimmer and it was easy, do you know what I mean? So I hate to sit up here and‑‑ but I think journeys mean more when you're our age because there is so much more to it, and there is depth and meaning. I was a kid and I started when I was 4 and I quit when I was 24, and in those 20 years it was amazing and great but, you know, I learned a lot. I learned that my silver medal in '92 was okay. But it certainly wasn't‑‑ it didn't have the depth to this. Does that make sense? Do you know what I mean? When you do something your whole life and it comes easy and you come back and try to do it again, there is a certain depth to that the second time around. I hope that makes sense. Q. (No microphone.) JANET EVANS: Oh, yeah, I appreciate my first career a little better now because, like I told Phil, it was so easy. I mean, it wasn't easy, but just to have the ability to go out and do that. Q. You have covered Olympic ground in this sport and I was wondering how do you think it's changed? Do you marvel at the attention that it now gets? Can you comment on the evolution of swimming in the public eye? Do you see a difference now compared to back then? JANET EVANS: I mean, I think swimming was exciting back then, too. I think we can't forget the games of '84 with Rowdy and Tracy Caulkins, and those were the games that inspired me in LosAngeles. So I think it's always been a popular sport. The Olympic year we always have great names and faces, and in my generation it was Matt Biondi. Obviously Phelps has transcended the sport of swimming and now Lochte, but swimming is always up there with the Olympic sports, and we like to think we get more attention in the middle of the quadrennium, and sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, but, you know, I think that it's‑‑ it's gettin' there. I would like to see it even more. We'll get there. Q. Janet, you said before you came here one of the main goals in doing all this was for your two kids to be able to see you swim and see you take part in this. What was that like for you? JANET EVANS: I haven't seen them yet, although they keep calling me, but ‑‑ my five year old has my number memorized so she calls me every five minutes now. I learned that my two year old slept through my 400 in my mom's arms, but my five year old was cute because after my 400 she said, "Mama did you win?" And I said, "No, I didn't win," and she said, "It's okay. I still love you." Your kids are going to love you no matter what. It's been inspirational for them. I asked my five year old if she wanted to swim now and she said no. So I thought maybe it would inspire her to join the swim team but she still doesn't want to swim. You know, it's been the best part of it all, having my kids here and also to have my parents here, you know what I mean? My dad is 76, and they're here and they're so happy and so proud and so excited. My mom was the first person I called today after my swim. It's been‑‑ for those of you that know my folks and what they meant to me in my first career, it's been great to have them back here, too, although they didn't do a lot during my career this time except baby‑sit my kids, which made them super, super happy. It's been amazing. Q. Janet talk about your relationship with Mark Schubert in this journey and I understand you were training with Brian Goble. JANET EVANS: Yes, the whole Mark thing was serendipitous. I started swimming around the time that he left US Swimming. Mark and I have always been good friends and it was a symbiotic relationship in that he inspired me to get back into the pool, but I think he needed to put his feet on the ground after what happened to him. So I think we helped each other. I think he was trying to figure out where his career as a coach or whatever he was going to do was going to go, and suddenly I was there swimming, and I think it kind of just helped get him back on to the pool deck and inspired him to start coaching again, and he's kind of found his place at a very good club team, very close to his home in Southern California, and he seems very happy. I think Mark and I obviously were always very close, I would say we are closer now, and I think Mark is really good. I certainly couldn't have done it without him. I started swimming the first time in 2010 with John McKinnon, whose daughter is about to swim the 200 Back, silver medalist in '84, in the 400 Freestyle, who I went to high school with. When John couldn't keep up with me anymore, I started training with Brian Goble, '76 gold medalist, and then Brian had to work so he couldn't keep coming to my workouts with me, so I did the last year of commuting by myself. But we talk about a journey and whatever, right, what this meant to me, and I think the people I've met and the friends I have made or the friendships I have renewed, people have been amazing, you know what I mean? People have been so supportive, so positive and so beyond inspiring to me, you know? And I think that getting to be better friends with Brian and people like John McKinnon, and I've met a lot of younger swimmers who I think are amazing kids, so there have been a lot of friendships reinforced or formed through this journey. Q. Janet, what does it mean you can have such a difference in age from 17 years old to yourself swimming and competing against each other and what does that say about the sport of swimming overall? JANET EVANS: I think it says that it's a great sport, and you can do it at all ages. I hope I'm proof of that. I don't think it ever leaves your soul, a little bit. I think for me it's a part of who I am, being in the water, and we all sit up here and think it's such an amazing sport, and it is. I was changing in the locker room and there were college girls in there that had just graduated from college and this was their last meet, and they were talking about how old they were, and they were like 21. And they're like, "I'm so excited to retire. I'm so old," and I was there trying to peel off at 40 this skin tight suit, you know? And I just laughed to myself. They were like, "Oh, I'm so old. I need to get on with my life!" I was like, "You'll be okay." It is what it is. But, yeah, it's just so fun to be back and it makes me feel young, because I'm out there on the pool deck with these kids, and I wonder if people are going to see all the wrinkles and see that I'm not the same age as all of these kids out there. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Janet, we appreciate your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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