Janet Evans

Janet Beth Evans (born August 28, 1971) is a former American competitive swimmer who specialized in distance freestyle. Evans won gold medals at the 1988 and the 1992 Olympics. Born in Fullerton, California, Evans grew up in neighboring Placentia, where she started swimming competitively as a child. By the age of 11, she was setting National Age Group records in distance events. After graduating from El Dorado High School, she attended Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin before graduating from the University of Southern California in 1994 with a degree in communication. Evans was distinctive for her unorthodox "windmill" stroke and her apparently inexhaustible cardio-respiratory reserves. Slight of build and short of stature, she more than once found herself competing and winning against bigger and stronger athletes, some of whom were subsequently found to have been using performance-enhancing drugs. Janet Evans was the 1989 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. She was named the Female World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine in 1987, 1989, and 1990. After retiring from competitive swimming,  ( Wikipedia article )