Peter Evans (swimmer)
Peter Maxwell Evans is an Australian breaststroke swimmer. He won four Olympic medals, including a gold in the 4×100 m medley relay at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He also won consecutive bronze medals in the 100 m breaststroke in the 1980 Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Evans retired after missing selection for the 1986 Commonwealth Games. He unsuccessfully stood as the candidate for the Liberal Party of Australia in the electoral district of Perth at the 1986 state election.
About Peter Evans (swimmer) in brief
Peter Maxwell Evans is an Australian breaststroke swimmer. He 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 in the 1980 Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. 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. Evans is the son of prominent Western Australian businessman and politician Max Evans. He was initially a self-taught swimmer, having observed his father in the water. Evans enjoyed success in all four strokes at school level, but was most proficient at breaststroke and chose to specialise in it, commenting that he would rather be good at one stroke than mediocre in four. He broke the Western Australian record for breaststroke during his final year at school. He later honed his endurance ability under Kevin Duff and his sprinting ability under Bernie Mulroy. He is the uncle of Olympic medallist David Dickson and Olympic gold medalist Duncan Goodhew. Evans was born into an affluent family in Perth, Western Australia. His father Max was a chartered accountant who went on to become a politician for the Lib Party in the state’s Upper House. His mother Barbara was a physiotherapist and won a half-blue in netball at the University of Western Australian.
Evans attended the exclusive Scotch College in Perth for his entire primary and high school years. He trained and competed for the school swimming team in summer as well as the field hockey team. In November 1978, Evans broke the Australian breastroyance record for the 100m. He came second to Lindsay Spencer at the Australian Championships in Perth. Despite only four weeks of solid training, Evans was omitted from the Australian squad that toured Britain because he was an unknown swimmer and did not feel that he could become an elite swimmer so soon. After the meet, Evans vowed to become an Olympian. He travelled to England to train at Crystal Palace in London under future Olympic medalist David Haller. Evans returned to Australia in 1980 and qualified for the Olympics in both the 100 m and 200 breaststroke. He competed in his second Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, winning bronze in both 100 M breaststroke and the medley relay. He then moved to the United States to study business and compete for the University of Arizona. Evans’ career peak came in the 4 × 100 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 U.S. has not won the event at Olympic level. Evans won a gold, a silver and three bronze medals at youth level.
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