Intro:

Former Olympian Janet Evans fell short in her Olympic bid on Saturday. The American failed to advance from the 800 freestyle preliminaries at the US Olympic Trials at Omaha in Nebraska, USA.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Janet Evans, USA

"Yes this is definitely it. I just signed my retirement papers. First thing I did."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Janet Evans, USA

"I never in this whole two years of swimming, I don't think I ever found my base. I don't think I found my endurance, so the 800 was a little bit harder for me than the 400 and I think that's just a result of age. I think swimming for four minutes is different than swimming for eight. So that's what I was experiencing."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Janet Evans, USA

"You know there was meet last August in Mission Viejo and I think I went like 9 minutes and Mark said, 'You know you can quit now.' And I was like, I'm not going to quit, but I also realised to drop 39-40 seconds in a year at the age of 39 at the time, it just wasn't...But you just never know and I think that's what life is all about. And for me it became about more than making the Olympic team. It became about having a life as a Mom with my kids, but also about doing something for myself and I think maybe inspiring others to go and do something that maybe they're scared of doing - something that's a little bit outside their comfort zone. So I think it became bigger than making the Olympic team, I think it stood for more than that. And when you look at my times here, obviously I wanted to swim faster that that and I swam faster than that all season, so who knows what happened with that. But at the end of the day that doesn't matter. It really doesn't. I think it's about trying something and doing it and being proud of what you've done."