Janet Evans

Janet Evans was the dominant female distance swimmer of the 1980s and 1990s, winning 4 Olympic gold medals at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Games and holding the world record in the 400m freestyle for 17 years (1988-2005). Her technically unorthodox windmill freestyle stroke confounded coaches but produced one of the most efficient distance swimming techniques ever seen. She lit the Olympic torch at the 1996 Atlanta Games alongside Muhammad Ali.