Janet has been recognized as the best swimmer in the U.S. History. Her accomplishments unsurpassed, 4 Olympic Gold Medals, 45 National Championships owner of the oldest and most respected World Records on the books and millions of fans around the world. Janet has made her presence felt in and out of the pool. Her career as a motivational speaker started at the ripe old age of 16 and now, in her early 30’s, Janet is one of the most requested female keynotes in the country. Janet executes over 20 motivational speeches per year for top companies.
Janet has spoken to audiences from varying fields from Technology to Healthcare, Real Estate. Telecommunications, Apparel, Banking, Insurance, Trade Associations, packaged goods, non-profits and many others. Janet’s easy and graceful style on a podium has helped veteran salesman and senior executives alike.
Detailed Bio:
Despite her small size and unorthodox windmill stroke, Janet Evans was a natural-born swimmer who was swimming laps at the age of two. In 1987, when she was 15 years old, Evans broke the world record in both the 400, 800m and the 1,500m freestyle. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Evans won her first gold medal in the 400m individual medley. Three days later, she won the 400m freestyle by more than two seconds and broke her own world record by 1.6 seconds. She added a third Olympic victory in the 800m freestyle. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics Evans easily defended her title in the 800m by leading from start to finish, winning by eight meters; she also won the silver in the 400m. Evans made one final appearance at the Olympics in 1996, but sites running the Olympic torch as the highlight of that Olympics over the actual competition. Considered the greatest female distance swimmer of all time, her world records for the 400, the 800, and the 1500 set in 1988 and 1989 have yet to be broken.
Janet has made her presence felt in and out of the pool as well. Since the end of her swimming career, Janet has made a name for herself as a commercial spokesperson, author, a reality television personality, and a highly sought after speaker. She is a spokesperson for CanolaInfo and Johnson & Johnson baby. In 2007, Janet published her first book titled Total Swimming which offers fitness programs, workouts, and proper swim techniques to readers. In 2008, she was selected to star on NBC’s reality show Celebrity Circus where the competition reached new heights as Janet attempted death-defying stunts in a head-to-head competition in front of a live studio audience. Janet’s career as a motivational speaker started at the young age of 16 and has turned her into one of the most requested keynotes in the country. Janet executes motivational speeches for top companies in varying fields including: Technology, Healthcare, Real Estate, Telecommunications, Apparel, Banking, Insurance, Trade Associations, packaged goods, non profits and many others. With her easy style and grace on a podium, Janet has helped veteran salesman and senior executives alike!
Janet Evans was one of the stars of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, winning gold medals in the 400- and 800-meter freestyle events and the 400-meter individual medley. Her time of 4:03.85 in the 400-meter freestyle was a world record.
In 1989, Janet Evans won seven national championships. She took the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle titles and the 400-yard individual medley at the short-course nationals, the 400- and 800-meter freestyles and the 200- and 400-meter medley events at the long-course nationals. Those performances won her the 1989 Sullivan Award as the country’s outstanding amateur athlete of the year as well as the U. S. Olympic Committee’s Sportswoman of the Year award.
Evans was the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle champion in the 1990 long course nationals, but she lost her 400-meter individual medley crown. She also won the 400- and 800-meter freestyle events at the 1991 world championships.
Swimming for Stanford University, Evans won the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyle events at the 1990 and 1991 NCAA championships and she was the 400-yard individual medley titlist in 1990. However, she left school in 1991 because of a new NCAA rule limiting collegiate swimmers to only 20 hours of practice a week. At the 1992 Olympics, Evans claimed two more medals, a gold in the 800-meter freestyle and a silver in the 400-meter.
Janet Evans gave up the individual medley event in 1993 to focus on her freestyle swimming. The move paid off in another string of victories. She won the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter events at the national spring and summer championships and was also 400- and 800-meter world champion that year.
She repeated her triple victories at both national meets again in 1994, but claimed only one world championship, in the 800-meter. It was the only victory for an American woman at the world meet, which was dominated by the suddenly emerging Chinese. Janet Evans began to show signs of vulnerability in 1995. After winning the usual three freestyle races at the national spring meet, she didn’t win anything at the summer nationals, where her best finish was a second in the 400-meter. At her third Olympics in 1996, Evans didn’t come close to medaling, and she announced her retirement from competitive swimming shortly afterward.
Follow Us