After the games, Evans returned to the United States to continue his studies and collegiate swimming career. Before the 1984 Olympics, Evans travelled to Hong Kong to train with Haller, who was coaching the British colony's swimming team. Evans revitalised himself under his favourite coach and returned to his old style of sprinting. He twisted his ankle later in Perth and missed some training time. He won the Australian 100 m breaststroke championship to qualify for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and returned to Arizona to continue training. His Olympic campaign was placed in jeopardy when the ASU threatened to remove Evans from the team for skipping their training camp in Australia. The threat was withdrawn after Evans' father confronted the ASU and pointed out that his son was training, although in a different location. Before the Games, Evans joined the Australians for their final training camp at Stanford University in California. Evans arrived in Los Angeles with the same program as in Moscow; he entered both breaststroke events and the medley relay. Evans started brightly to win his heat of the 100 m breaststroke in an Olympic record time of 1 m 2.87 s. His new mark did not last long—John Moffet broke it in a later heat to relegate Evans to the second-fastest qualifying time.