Evans, who at 24 has won four Olympic gold medals and 45 national titles, greeted Brooke with some uncharacteristic gamesmanship of her own. “A lot of people ask, “Do you see Brooke being like you?’ " said Evans, who went to her first Olympics at 17. “I say, “No!’ By the time I was 15, I had three world records.” She concluded her remarks with a harsh view of Bennett: Brooke will be remembered – if at all – as a flash in the pan unless she swims much faster. “I don’t know why she’s getting so much attention.”
As if Evans didn’t know, her sport, bland and faceless in the pool, thrives on the colorful rivalries the swimmers bring to the starting blocks. And in Brooke vs. Janet, it has a remarkable one. Could there be a more vivid contrast than that between the brash Bennett, who was raised in a trailer outside Tampa, Fla., and loves to ride her dad’s Harley-Davidson, and the demure Evans, who grew up in affluent Orange County, Calif., and appears in Cadillac Seville ads? Did someone say Tonya and Nancy?
At 5 feet 3 inches and 110 pounds, Brooke is short and a bit squat for a distance swimmer. But she says distance races are “all mental” anyway. She made her reputation chasing down front runners with blistering second halves. Most days Brooke swims 12,000 meters, squeezing in high school between workouts. As the trials neared, she swore off the motorcycle or any other risky rides. “I even stay off the horse,” says Bennett.
Discipline, like her stroke, was something she had to learn. “I was very energetic, and my mom could never get me to do anything,” says Bennett. Her mother, Rachel, hoped that swimming might exhaust the rambunctious 5-year-old. “It was the only way I could get her to go to bed at night,” she says. Getting Brooke to sleep proved easier than getting her out of the pool. She made her mother take her to extra practices so she could compete against the older kids. “She liked to make the big kids cry,” recalls her grandfather James Lane.
Making the big kids cry has always played a large part in the Olympic trials, an unforgiving meet where third place is not a bronze medal, but a see-ya-in-four-years. The ‘96 version featured a number of former Olympic stars – including Summer Sanders, Jenny Thompson, Anita Nall and Mel Stewart – whose greatest glories appear to be behind them. Nall, for example, was 16 when she won a gold, silver and bronze in Barcelona; in last week’s 100-meter breaststroke, she finished fourth behind 14-year-old Amanda Beard, who brought her lucky teddy bear to the pool.
The extraordinary Evans proved an exception. With a stirring charge on the eighth and final lap of the 400 meters, she caught 200-meter champion Cristina Teuscher and won the race – and a spot on her third Olympic team. “I still have it,” Evans said afterward. “Experience pays off.” A visibly nervous Bennett finished fourth, almost three seconds behind Evans. She narrowly beat Jessica Foschi, the 15-year-old Long Islander whose on-again, off-again suspension after testing positive for a steroid dominated the sport’s news all winter. This week Bennett will get another shot at Evans in the 800, considered Brooke’s better event, and could yet star in Atlanta. “I’ll be there,” she said. If so, she’ll go with a helpful – and humbling – lesson in what it means to be a real champion.
