Meet Features Olympians

Former Olympic medalists and those hoping to swim in the 2000 Summer Games will be featured in the Janet Evans Invitational, which begins today and runs through Sunday at USC.

Amanda Beard, Jenny Thompson, Kristine Quance-Julian, Claudia Poll, Amy Van Dyken, Dara Torres and Brad Bridgewater--all gold-medal winners--are scheduled to compete.

Lenny Krayzelburg, Aaron Peirsol, Chad Carvin, Kaitlin Sandeno, Erik Vendt, Jennifer Parmenter, Lindsay Benko and Jason Lezak--all of whom expect to be competing in Sydney, Australia--are also scheduled to swim.

Krayzelburg and Peirsol will renew their battle in the backstroke events. Krayzelburg, who swam for USC, is the world record-holder in the 200-meter backstroke. Peirsol, of Newport Harbor High, is the third fastest all time in the 200.

Torres, 33, became the oldest swimmer to set a U.S. record when she won the 50 free in 24.73 seconds last month. Van Dyken, who won four gold medals in 1996, was second in that race with a time of 25.41.

Benko, who swam at USC, was on the 200 freestyle relay team that set the U.S. record.

The meet begins today with the 800-meter freestyle. The preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. and the finals at 5 p.m. Full days of competition are scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.