While watching the olympic trials I mentioned to my wife how I distinctly remembered Evans 800 or 1500 freestyle events and how she had been behind by quite a bit halfway through and the announcer said that if she was only half a pool length behind no one had a chance, and of course she won in world record time. My wife insists that I am mis-remembering, that Evans always lead from start to finish. I could not find splits for that race. Does anyone know what her racing style was then?
You can watch the majority of the race on youtube. She is leading at least the last 4 minutes so I don’t think she was ever behind by much. She also didn’t set the world record in that race.
Women also do not swim the 1500 in the Olympics, men do not swim the 800.