By Tito Morales<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 3. JANET Evans is on a mission. <\/p>\n
The four-time Olympic gold medalist is convinced that competitive swimming is winning the war against performance-enhancing drugs, and she wants to keep it that way. She vows to do everything in her power to ensure that future generations of athletes can step up onto the blocks knowing that their playing field is level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI swam against the East Germans,\u201d Evans says. \u201cI have first-hand experience competing against athletes who have been doping. On a personal level, I know all about doping.\u201d<\/p>\n
So it came as no surprise, really, when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recently appointed the distance legend as a member of its newly-formed Athlete Committee. Evans was the lone American, and only swimmer, to be named to the group. She and the other twelve members, which include former marathon great Rosa Mota of Portugal and retired hockey star Viacheslav Fetisov of the Soviet Union, were all chosen to help give WADA, established in 1999, more of an athlete\u00b9s perspective into the pervasive problem of drug cheating. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis Committee, through their experience and expertise, will assist us greatly in our fight against doping,\u201d said Dick Pound, WADA\u2019s President, at the time of the announcement. \u201cI am confident that it will help us further develop our important task of educating athletes worldwide about the consequences of doping.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that our ultimate goals should be to stop youngsters from wanting to do this to get ahead, and to really give credit where credit is due with the clean athletes,\u201d Evans says.<\/p>\n
Evans, who was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame last May, feels strongly that WADA\u2019s objective of giving more of a voice to athletes is merely the next logical stage of a process which has been evolving for decades. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the inaugural committee, so there are still a lot of things being worked out,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s a very positive step by WADA and I\u2019m excited to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeping It Out of the Shadows<\/b><\/p>\n
For Evans, a tenaciously hard worker who achieved her success one grueling set after another, the proverbial glass is always half full – and never half empty. <\/p>\n
She chooses to focus not on what hasn\u2019t or isn\u2019t being done on the doping prevention frontlines, but on what is being done, and what will be done. And maybe that\u2019s the best way to look at things. Not all that long ago, the notion of creating an anti-doping group such as WADA, which operates independent of either the IOC or FINA, would have seemed preposterous. This latest twist – pulling recognizable athletes into the fold – would have seemed even more inconceivable.<\/p>\n
For far too long, in fact, the subject of doping was never openly addressed. At the 1976 Olympics, U.S. star Shirley Babashoff was ridiculed for suggesting that there was something amiss in the performances of her primary opponents, the East Germans. Not only was Babashoff labeled a crybaby and a sore loser, she was lambasted by the international media who looked upon her insinuations as being the worst possible form of poor sportsmanship. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is such a legend,\u201d says Evans of Babashoff. \u201cI think she really got the bad end of the stick. She was the pioneer. She got a bum rap for it, but ultimately I think what she did opened a lot of people\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the long run, Babashoff\u2019s suspicions proved to be true. Still, though, by the time Evans herself burst upon the international scene in the latter part of the 1980s, drug doping continued to be one of those
\nissues which lingered about in the darkest corners of the natatorium. A small handful of journalists, led by ISHOF honoree Dr. Phillip Whitten, fought hard to illuminate those shadows. But the athletes were still forced to keep their doubts to themselves. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we swam against the East Germans, no one pointed fingers at them,\u201d says Evans. \u201cIt just wasn\u00b9t done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still later, in 1996, Evans got a firsthand glimpse of just how volatile the doping issue was at the Atlanta Games. After Whitten laid out the case against her in Swimming World, athletes from around the world secretly questioned the meteoric rise of Ireland\u00b9s Michelle Smith. For some reason, perhaps because of her international notoriety, the mainstream media singled out Evans to be Smith\u2019s number one accuser. <\/p>\n
\u201c1996 was just an ugly year for all that,\u201d Evans recalls. \u201cWe were coming off of what the Chinese did in 1994 in Australia [sic], and it was all just ripe for the picking. I never accused Michelle Smith of cheating, but I was really made the scapegoat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, as was the case with the East Germans and the Chinese, the swimming community\u2019s skepticism about Smith proved to be correct and she suffered one of the most ignominious falls from grace in Olympic Games history. But Evans, to this day, has found it difficult to shed the perception that she was nothing more than a troublemaker in the entire affair. <\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel the effects of what happened,\u201d she says. \u201cEvery once in a while I\u2019ll meet an Irish person and they\u2019ll say, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re the girl who spoke so badly about Michelle Smith.\u2019 It\u2019s truly like that for me and it\u2019s been, what, nine years now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans is hopeful that future generations of swimmers won\u2019t be subjected to such scorn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the progress that\u2019s been made that we\u00b9re finally at the point where we can have committees that speak out about the issue. We can have an independent anti-doping agency.\u201d <\/p>\n
The BALCO Effect<\/b><\/p>\n
Last summer, Australian superstars Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett were both taken to task by FINA for saying that not only were they convinced that they\u2019d competed against unclean athletes in the past but that they\u2019d likely have to do so again – maybe even in Athens. <\/p>\n
Evans waded into the fray by defending the organization\u2019s anti-doping efforts. <\/p>\n
\u201cFINA\u2019s anti-doping policy does as much as it can to ensure that swimmers will be clean at the Games,\u201d she said at the time. \u201cI sincerely believe swimming is a clean sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her comments were viewed by at least one writer as bordering on na\u00efve. And, perhaps, part of the reason why Evans\u2019 statement elicited such a strong reaction was the fear that if the sport passes itself off as being 100 percent clean, then the powers-that-be might simply commend one another on a job well done and adopt an attitude of complacency instead of one of imperative hyper-vigilance and pro-activity.<\/p>\n
Today, though, Evans steadfastly stands by her comments. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that the problem in swimming is as widespread as it is in other sports,\u201d she insists. \u201cI truly believe that, and I defend the statement I made last summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans, who closely monitored the recent Congressional hearings, is heartened by all the revelations of late about Major League Baseball. She\u2019s convinced that all the attention being paid to the steroid issue there can only mean good things to all sports, including competitive swimming. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think this BALCO thing has really broken it open,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a battle, but I think having all these things happening are really helping our cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no coincidence, Evans feels, that those who wish to reform the professional sports inevitably point to WADA\u2019s success with regulating the IOC as an example of an anti-drug program which can be, and is, effective. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll the articles I\u00b9ve read always refer to WADA,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey all write about looking at what the IOC has done and what it\u2019s continuing to do, and how that\u2019s what\u2019s needed in all the other sports.\u201d <\/p>\n
An Ugly Climate<\/b><\/p>\n
As for her own records, many of which have stood the test of time for decades despite the onslaught of remarkable technical innovation, Evans maintains that she will be among the first to applaud when they fall – provided they are beaten honestly. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like my world records, and it\u2019s fun having them, but if they get broken by a clean athlete I\u00b9ll be the happiest person out there,\u201d she says. \u201cIf they get broken by a dirty athlete, though, I\u2019m going to have some trouble with it\u201d<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, Evans\u2019 golden triangle of performances in the distance freestyle events (4:03.85 in the 400 meters, 8:16.22 in the 800, and 15:52.10 in the 1500) were so far ahead of their time, that she, herself,
\nwas the subject of accusations during her career – and, ironically, sometimes still is.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite one was that because my dad is a veterinarian I was receiving veterinary products,\u201d she muses. \u201cMe and all of my 99 pounds. That was ridiculous. It\u2019s laughable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the subject of doping has become front-page news, many who know absolutely nothing about swimming or sport in general have felt compelled to comment on all the never-ending developments. Just recently, for instance, a writer penned an editorial attacking Evans for opting to wear a paper suit back in 1988 which, at the time, was considered state of the art. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was implying that that was just as much cheating as what the East Germans were doing!\u201d says Evans. \u201cYou\u00b9ve got to be kidding me… But you\u2019re always going to get people that don\u00b9t like you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, though, this has become the climate in which we now live. Doubt and suspicion cloud every great athletic performance. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gotten to the point where any record that\u2019s broken is questioned,\u201d says Evans. \u201cAnd for the athletes who are doing it fairly, and work their tails off every day, and are absolutely talented in every way, I think
\nthat\u2019s really, really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fighting the Good Fight<\/b><\/p>\n
Evans, though, is optimistic that the pendulum will soon swing back the other way. And she\u2019s convinced that the new undertaking will help turn things around. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest deal now is that I love being a role model,\u201d she explains. \u201cI love going out and speaking at clinics for kids. With everything that\u2019s going on now with steroids – with all the revelations in baseball, and now we\u2019re moving on to football – I think we need to have positive role models out there with a platform on which to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
The WADA Athlete Committee, she feels certain, will provide such a forum. Evans says that her years away from the sport have changed her perspective on competitive swimming. When she was in the prime of her career, she was as consumed by the sport as anyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel as if it\u2019s your entire world,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019m married now, and I\u2019m thinking about starting a family. As someone who\u2019s older now, you realize that winning a gold medal is great, but having a happy, healthy life is much more important than all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this is what she hopes to impress upon all the legions of youngsters who she comes into contact with. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I\u2019m very passionate about all this,\u201d says Evans. \u201cAnd the other members of the committee who I know are also very passionate about it. I think that when you bring a bunch of passionate people together, good results will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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