This article originally appeared in the 2024 Olympics Preview edition of SwimSwam Magazine, courtesy of author Riley Overend. Subscribe to SwimSwam Magazine here.
When Janet Evans was a 17-year-old freshman at Stanford University, she got a call from Billy Payne, who was leading Atlanta's bid for the 1996 Olympics.
“I want you to speak on behalf of Atlanta as we enter into this bid,” Payne told Evans.
Fresh from winning three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Evans flew to Atlanta during the bid, showing International Olympic Committee officials around the city, then traveled to Tokyo for the 1990 IOC Annual Session, when, against all odds, Atlanta was chosen to host the 1996 Summer Olympics over Athens.
Evans finished her Olympic career in Atlanta as one of the most decorated American swimmers of all time. Nicknamed “Miss Perpetual Motion,” she won five Olympic medals (four gold), 45 national titles, and set seven world records in swimming. Her global standards were ahead of her time, and her world records in the 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle, and 1500 freestyle, which she set in the 1980s, remained unbroken until 2006, 2008, and 2007, respectively.
But outside the water, Evans couldn't help but notice that athletes' voices were being ignored.
“I think it's easy to forget that the athletes are the most important stakeholders in the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Evans said.
So when former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and LA28 President Casey Wasserman approached Evans in 2015 about helping them win an Olympic bid, she wanted some assurances before jumping at the opportunity.
“When I took this job, I told Casey Wasserman and Mayor Garcetti, 'I'm not taking this job unless we put athletes at the center of what we do and every decision that touches athletes goes through my team,'” Evans said. “My role at LA28 has evolved in this way because Casey has given me the space to put athletes first. I believe every decision we make at LA28 is athlete-centric. We have more Olympians working at LA28 than the IOC in Lausanne.”
Evans, a Fullerton native who graduated from Stanford and the University of Texas before graduating from the University of Southern California, brings a wealth of Olympic bid experience to the Los Angeles team, having worked behind the scenes in Atlanta's successful bid in 1996 and also helped New York's 2012 bid, which lost to London.
Evans solicited feedback from athletes as she prepared Los Angeles' presentation to the IOC, including for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in 2016. She asked athletes about their Olympic and Paralympic experiences, imagined what an athletes' village at UCLA might look like, and visited every stadium in the city as she developed the plan.
“It was a great experience to reconnect with the athletes,” Evans said.
Ultimately, the IOC decided at its 2017 annual meeting to host the 2024 Games in Paris and the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. Evans' 18-month stint suddenly turned into a 13-year stint.
Now in his role as Chief Athlete Officer, Evans faces the monumental challenge of arranging accommodation for 15,000 athletes from more than 200 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) across 30 sports.
“Not every athlete gets everything because there are 27 different international federations that have their needs,” Evans said. “It's been an interesting change for me to move away from aquatic sports and look at all the participants in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We love Team USA, but there are 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) coming to Los Angeles. Team USA is obviously my favorite team, but there are a lot of other NOCs that have needs.”
Los Angeles has a wealth of existing facilities that make Evans' job a little easier. For example, swimming was originally scheduled to take place in a temporary swimming and diving facility to be built at the University of Southern California's baseball stadium. But last month, organizers made the abrupt decision to move the swimming venue to SoFi Stadium, a 38,000-seat football stadium. There is a limited window in which both the Olympics and Paralympics can be held, from the time UCLA closes until USC reopens in the fall.
Evans says it's a “huge task” to think of everything the organizing committee will have to execute through the summer of 2028. But she says she's listening to it all in terms of feedback. Some fixes should be easy, like providing more towels for the women's water polo team. Other issues, like keeping players connected with friends and family amid the frenzy and transitioning players into their post-Olympic careers, require more complicated solutions.
Evans, whose experience at the 1992 Olympics was marred by a bus driver getting lost in Barcelona between qualification and the final, knows firsthand how important it is to have logistics running smoothly on what could be the most important day of an athlete's career.
“I had 45 minutes to eat lunch and get back to my final exam,” Evans recalled.
Evans is in discussions with the IOC and IPC about developing a career transition program for athletes for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He started the fellowship program with LA28 several years ago after noticing athletes' resumes lacked the experience needed to be hired. As one example of the program's success, Evans points to former Olympic fencer Cody Mattern, a 2021 fellow who was hired full-time in just four months and promoted twice to senior associate.
“Their soft skills and institutional knowledge of the Olympics are unmatched and are incredibly important to this organization,” Evans said of his fellow athletes. “We know it's only a small part of it, but we feel like we're giving our athletes an opportunity to build their resumes, work in Olympic and Paralympic sport, and then when we all lose our jobs in September 2028, we can send them off with real-world experience.”
Evans says the LA28 Athlete Fellows will join her in Paris this summer and experience the 2024 Olympics as a learning experience.
“It's important to be at the Games,” Evans said, “to see the Games from different perspectives. It's important to understand what the Athletes' Village is like. For me, sitting down with the athletes after the Games and understanding the good, the bad and the ugly is probably the most important information to gain. We've worked extremely well with the Paris Organizing Committee and have a great relationship with their athlete team. For me, it's important not only to watch the Games but also to understand what it was like for them from the athletes' perspective.”
