Goodwill Games Organizors have selected Janelle Atkinson to compete in the Goodwill Games swimming competition as a member of the World Allstars. The World Allstars team selection is based on world rankings and performances in recent games including the 2000 Olympics. The World Allstars team will be up against the best swimmers from Team USA, European Allstars and Team Australia when they compete in a round-robin format. Atkinson will join 1300 other elite athletes from 14 sports in major international competition August 29 to September 9, 2001.

Other stars of the pool already confirmed to compete in the Games include Pieter van den Hoogenband, Inge de Bruijn, Stev Theloke, Lars Frolander, Yana Klochkova, Martina Moravcova and Beatrice Caslaru. The strong 45 member Australian Team, which includes superstars Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, was announced on August 8th.

The Goodwill Games swim meet will be run according to the American college team format, which sees the four teams swim against each other in a round robin format. Competing in this meet will give young Janelle Atkinson significant experience in international competition.

The competition is made even more exciting with team coaches permitted to make changes to their entries up to 10 minutes before the race starts.

This means just four swimmers, or two from each team, will be in the pool at any one team. Points will be accrued according to placement in the six preliminary sessions, with teams advancing to gold or bronze medal swim-offs on Monday, September 3.

The 38 events to be contested at the Goodwill Games are:

50m, 100m, 200m, 400m freestyle
50m, 100m, 200m backstroke
50m, 100m, 200m breastroke
50m, 100m, 200m butterfly
200m, 400m individual medley
4x100m freestyle relay
4 x 100m medley relay
800m women's freestyle
1500m men's freestyle

Each team is allowed two entries in individual events and one entry in relay events.
The only exception to this rule is in the 800m women and 1500m men's event, where all eight swimmers will compete at the same time.

Atkinson is currently training in Florida and will join her World Allstar team mates in Brisbane on August 24.

August 18, 2001