Janet Evans' Comeback Takes Another Stroke Forward

Poor Chloe Sutton. The 20-year-old swimmer for the Mission Viejo Nadadores clocked the year's seventh-fastest time in the world on Thursday at a swim meet in Orange County, but all eyes were on the familiar smile of Janet Evans.

Twice as old as Sutton, Evans continued a comeback aimed at the London Olympic Games under circumstances that were hardly suited for taking on America's best swimmers. 

Still, after a late night and an early morning cross-country flight, one of America's most beloved Olympians took to the TYR Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions and covered the 800-meter freestyle in 8 minutes and 46.89 seconds at Mission Viejo's Marguerite Recreation Center.

With more than two months remaining before Evans' fate is determined at the Olympic Trials, her time was two seconds better than the 8:49.05 she posted in January at the Austin Grand Prix to qualify for the trials.

“I get to go to trials and I made the cut again, so I feel really legit there,” said Evans, who trains around her schedule as a wife and mother of two young children. “Austin wasn’t a fluke and my continuing to train these crazy hours and do these crazy things is still going well. I feel like I do get better every week.”

Evans, 40, set the world record in the 800-meter at 8:16.22 in 1989—more than two years before Sutton was born—and still holds the American record. But she has a long way to go this time around.

• Related: Janet Evans walks out to greet her second interviewer of the day with her face still made up and television-ready. A CNN crew has just vacated her Laguna Beach living room ....

"It's cool she's bringing a little more attention to swimming," said Sutton, whose time of 8:26.68 was 20 seconds faster than Evans.

Sutton was followed on the timesheet by Ashley Steenvorden (8:32.93) and the Nadadores' Ashley Twichell (8:40.88). Also finishing ahead of Evans were training partner Megan Rankin (8:44.51) and Brooke Lorentzen (8:45.69).

Lorentzen, 16, swam a lifetime best to win the heat that included Evans, who was second.

Although Evans lagged a bit behind the leaders, she finished ahead of 58 other swimmers despite spending Wednesday in New York at an event for sponsor BMW that lasted until midnight. Thursday morning, she caught a 6 a.m. flight for the West Coast.

Evans, a Laguna Beach resident who starred in the Olympics when she was still a student at El Dorado High in Placentia, began her comeback in late 2010.

She will also compete in the 400 meters this weekend.

In the men's 1,500 meters, Chad La Tourette of the Nadadores posted the fastest time in 15:09.55.