Michelle Smith

Medal record
Women’s swimming
Competitor for  Ireland
Olympic Games
Gold	1996 Atlanta	400 m freestyle
Gold	1996 Atlanta	200 m individual medley
Gold	1996 Atlanta	400 m individual medley
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	200 m butterfly
European Championships (LC)
Gold	1995 Vienna	200 m butterfly
Gold	1995 Vienna	200 m individual medley
Gold	1997 Seville	200 m freestyle
Gold	1997 Seville	400 m individual medley
Silver	1995 Vienna	400 m individual medley
Silver	1997 Seville	400 m freestyle
Silver	1997 Seville	200 m butterfly

Michelle Smith (born 16 December 1969 in Rathcoole, County Dublin, now more commonly referred to by her married name, Michelle de Bruin) is a retired Irish swimmer and practising Irish barrister. She was a triple gold medallist at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, for the 400 m individual medley, 400 m freestyle and 200 m individual medley. She also won the bronze medal for the 200 m butterfly event. She remains Ireland's most successful Olympian.

Significant controversy followed these victories, particularly after U.S. swimmer Janet Evans at a press conference accused Smith of doping immediately following Evans' defeat. These accusations have never been proven. However, as David Wallechinsky writes in his Complete Book of the Summer Olympics series, doubts about Smith involved the fact that no Irish swimmer had ever won an Olympic medal and that Smith's previous Olympic record had been "mediocre". Suspicions about her suddenly improving performances at an age considered to be late in a swimmer's career had been raised earlier, following her medal wins at the 1995 European Championships. Moreover, her husband and coach, Erik de Bruin, a Dutch discus and shot put thrower, had failed a drug test in 1993 and had been suspended from competition. He was first cleared by the Dutch Athletic Federation, but this was overturned by the IAAF.

Smith later received a four-year suspension in 1998 after being found guilty of tampering with a urine sample. The ban was imposed after a urine sample taken during a routine random drug test was found to be contaminated with alcohol.^[1] The bodybuilding drug Androstenedione was also found in her samples, but this was not a banned drug.

Swimming career

Smith's father taught his daughter's how to swim and Smith was first spotted by a lifeguard in Tallaght swimming pool at aged 9. He suggested that Smith's father enrol his daughter in a swimming club. Smith joined Terenure Swimming Club under the wing of Larry Williamson. Smith won the Dublin and All-Ireland Community Games at aged 9. She then won ten gold medals at a novice competition. She enrolled in the King's Hospital Swimming Club in 1980. At aged 14, Smith won ten medals at the Irish National Swimming Championships. At 14, she became National Junior and Senior Champion and dominated Irish women's swimming until her retirement in 1998.

Smith first appeared on the world scene as an 18-year-old at the Seoul Olympics and only narrowly missed the semi-finals (top 16). Smith's second major championship was at the 1991 World Championships in Perth, Australia, where she finished 13th in the 400 m individual medley. She competed at the 1991 European Championships and qualified for the 1992 Olympic Games. She competed in the 200 m medley and backstroke and 400 m medley in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, despite suffering an injury in the months leading up to the Games. In 1993 she came under the wing of Erik de Bruin, whom she had met in Barcelona. With new training techniques^{[citation needed]} she finished fifth in the 200 m butterfly at the 1994 World Championships.In that same year, she had suffered glandular fever, which affected her training prior to the World Championships.

In 1995, Smith set Irish records in 50 m, 100 m, 400 m and 800 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, 100 m and 200 m butterfly, and 200 m and 400 m medley events. She was ranked number 1 in 200 m butterfly, sixth in 100 m butterfly and seventh in 200 m medley; she made sporting history by becoming the first Irishwoman to win a European title in 200 m butterfly and the individual 400 m medley in the same year.

Controversy and doping ban

Smith was single-handedly responsible for Ireland's second-largest ever medal haul at one Olympics. Originally her application to compete at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta was rejected but later accepted on appeal. Smith's success led to hints from other swimmers, notably Evans, of possible foul play, but these were not substantiated at the time. The suspicion stemmed from the fact of her sudden rise in performance and that her coach, Erik de Bruin, had served a four-year ban during his discus career after testing positive for illegal levels of testosterone.

In 1995, Erik de Bruin was refused a coach's accreditation to the European Championships in Vienna because of his four-year ban. He used a falsified accreditation badge of a Belgian official to gain entry into the doping control area. In the anti-doping area, Erik proceeded to mark up Michelle's doping control form with comments regarding the sloppiness of the control procedures in Dutch.^[2][3] It was reported that in 1996 and 1997, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) had concerns about Smith's repeated unavailability for random out-of-competition testing. Her submitted training schedule was left totally blank, apart from her name and nationality, making it difficult to predict her movements. It has been suggested that Smith's behaviour during this period is wholly consistent with the typical behaviour of others who have subsequently been found guilty of drug taking offences.^[4]

Prior to the beginning of the games, swimming analyst Gary O'Toole flagged what he predicted would be an unbelievable performance in the games by Smith. He intimated that such an improvement in performance could not be naturally achieved. Naturally the Irish broadcaster RTÉ balked at the controversial claims and essentially gagged the analyst for fear of litigation. ^[5]

Two years after the Atlanta Games, FINA banned Smith for four years for tampering with her urine sample using alcohol.^[1] She appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Her case was heard by a panel of three experienced sports lawyers, including Michael Beloff QC. Uniquely for a CAS hearing, De Bruin's case was heard in public, at her own lawyer's request.^[6] FINA submitted evidence from Dr Jordi Segura, head of the IOC-accredited laboratory in Barcelona, which said she took the bodybuilding drug Androstenedione, a metabolic precursor of testosterone, the night before the test. It also became known that three samples, taken between November 1997 and March 1998, had shown traces of Androstenedione.^[4][7][8] The CAS upheld the ban.

She was 28 at the time, and the ban effectively ended her competitive swimming career. Although Smith lost some of her popularity and her career achievements were somewhat discredited, she was not stripped of her Olympic medals, because her doping offense was detected sometime after the games. Thus, she remains Ireland's most successful Olympian ever.^[9]

After the ban

Her experiences at the CAS had an effect beyond her swimming career. It was there that she developed an interest in the law; after officially announcing her retirement from swimming in 1999, she returned to university, graduating from University College Dublin with a degree in law. In July 2005 she was conferred with the degree of Barrister at Law of King's Inns, Dublin. While a student at the King's Inns she won the highly prestigious internal Brian Walsh Moot Court competition. Her first book, Transnational Litigation: Jurisdiction and Procedure was published in 2008 by Thomson Round Hall.^[10]

In 2007, she appeared on Celebrities Go Wild, an RTÉ reality television show in which eight celebrities had to fend for themselves in the wilds of rural Connemara.^[11] At the launch of the series, she refused to appear on The Late Late Show if host Pat Kenny made any reference to her swimming career. This came after RTÉ show executives told the former swimmer that some reference would have to be made to her controversial past. After the show, an RTÉ spokesperson stated that Michelle had made the decision not to take part when faced with the ultimatum.^[12] In an interview on national radio, Smith stated that she had been faced with an ultimatum from the national broadcaster, to go on the show and to answer questions about her ban, or else the broadcaster would not permit her to appear on the show. Smith refused to be treated differently to other contestants on the show, and she was not allowed to appear on the Late Late Show.

Michelle has always emphatically denied using illegal performance enhancing drugs. and never tested positive for a banned substance. Her first book co-written with Cathal Dervan provides her account of events[2]. She is currently a practising barrister at law.

See also

• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games

External links

• Irish Law Library profile
• Transnational Litigation: Jurisdiction and Procedure (Smith deBruin's book)

References