Peter Evans (swimmer)

Peter Evans

Personal information
Full name	Peter Maxwell Evans
National team	Australia
Born	(1961-08-01) 1 August 1961 (age 62) Perth, Western Australia
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	77 kg (170 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Breaststroke
College team	University of Arizona
Coach	Dick Jochums University of Arizona
Medal record Men's swimming Representing Australia Olympic Games 1980 Moscow 4×100 m medley 1980 Moscow 100 m breast 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m medley 1984 Los Angeles 100 m breast Commonwealth Games 1982 Brisbane 4×100 m medley 1982 Brisbane 100 m breast Summer Universiade 1983 Edmonton 100 m breast

Peter Maxwell Evans (born 1 August 1961) is an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1980s who won four Olympic medals, including a gold in the 4×100 m medley relay at the 1980 Moscow Olympics as part of the Quietly Confident Quartet. He also won consecutive bronze medals in the 100 m breaststroke at the 1980 Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

The son of prominent Western Australian businessman and politician Max Evans, Evans had a late start to his swimming career, making his debut at the Australian Championships in his hometown of Perth, aged 17. Despite placing second in the 100 m breaststroke, he was not selected for Australia, and instead travelled to the United Kingdom to train under David Haller. During this period, he quickly improved his times and rose from outside the top 200 into the top 25 in the world rankings. Evans returned to Australia in 1980 and qualified for the Olympics in both the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke. A sprinter, he won the 100 m in an Australian record time and showed a preference for shorter events, which required less training mileage. Evans gained a reputation for often doing fewer training laps than his coach asked of him.^[1][2] Having rebuffed Australian government pressure to boycott the Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Evans won bronze in the 100 m breaststroke. His career peak came in the 4 × 100 m medley relay, when he outsplit his opponents in the breaststroke leg of the relay, bringing Australia into contention for its eventual win, which remains the only time that the United States has not won the event at Olympic level.

After the Olympics, Evans moved to the United States to study business and compete for the University of Arizona, under Hall of Fame Coach Dick Jochums, who was just beginning his tenure at Alabama.^[3][4][5] Evans was less successful in the short-course format used at college level, which placed more reliance on efficient turns. Evans returned to Australia for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, winning silver in the 100 m breaststroke and gold in the medley relay. He competed in his second Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, winning bronze in both the 100 m breaststroke and the medley relay. Evans retired after missing selection for the 1986 Commonwealth Games and attempted to follow his father into politics. He unsuccessfully stood as the candidate for the Liberal Party of Australia in the electoral district of Perth at the 1986 state election, before pursuing a career in business.