Michelle Smith de Bruin (born 16 December 1969)[1] is an Irish lawyer and retired Olympic swimmer. She won three gold medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, for the 400 m individual medley, 400 m freestyle and 200 m individual medley, and also won the bronze medal for the 200 m butterfly event.
Smith's rise to dominance in the 1995 European Championships, followed by her wins in Atlanta, all at a relatively advanced age for swimmers, were marked by allegations of doping that were never proven. Smith was later banned for four years by FINA, the international swimming federation, for manipulation of an anti-doping sample by deliberate contamination with alcohol,[2] a decision upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport when Smith appealed.[3] Already superannuated in swimming terms, Smith never returned to competitive swimming and later worked as a barrister, practising under her married name of Michelle Smith de Bruin.[4]
Despite the ban for manipulating samples, none of Smith's swimming achievements were shown to have been as a result of using performance enhancers and, therefore, not annulled, so she remains Ireland's most successful Olympian.
Michelle Smith's father taught his daughters how to swim, and Smith was first spotted by a lifeguard in Tallaght swimming pool at age nine. He suggested that Smith's father enroll his daughter in a swimming club. Smith joined Terenure Swimming Club and trained under the tutelage of Larry Williamson. Smith won the Dublin and All-Ireland Community Games at aged 9. She 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. She later swam collegiately at the University of Houston.[5]
Smith first appeared on the world scene as an 18-year-old at the Seoul Olympics and narrowly missed the B-final in the 200 m backstroke (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. She finished fifth in the 200 m butterfly at the 1994 World Championships. In that same year, she suffered from 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.
1996 Olympics
Smith won three gold medals and a bronze medal in Atlanta. There was controversy at the Games due to Smith qualifying for the 400m freestyle event at the expense of the then-world record holder Janet Evans, who had finished ninth in the preliminary swims with only the top eight advancing. Smith did not submit her qualifying time for the 400m freestyle event before the 5 July deadline but did so two days later with the Irish Olympic officials insisting they had been given permission to submit the qualifying time after the deadline. Smith applied for the event after she had arrived in Atlanta. After Smith qualified at the expense of Evans, the US Swimming Federation, supported by the German and Netherlands swimming teams, challenged a decision to allow Smith to compete but were unsuccessful.[6] At a later conference, Evans highlighted that accusations of Smith doping had been heard by her poolside.[7] Smith later received an apology from Evans.[8]
Sample tampering ban
In April 1998, an exclusive by Craig Lord in The Times newspaper broke the news that Smith faced an anti-doping challenge.[9] Two years after the 1996 Summer Olympics, FINA banned Smith for four years for tampering with her urine sample using alcohol.[10][11] She appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Her case was heard by a panel of three sport lawyers, including Michael Beloff QC. Unusually for a CAS hearing, Smith's case was heard in public at her own lawyer's request.[12] FINA submitted evidence from Jordi Segura, head of the IOC-accredited laboratory in Barcelona, that Smith took androstenedione, a metabolic precursor of testosterone, in the previous 10-to-12 hours before being tested. Smith denied this and androstenedione was not a banned substance. The International Olympic Committee banned androstenedione and placed it under the category of androgenic-anabolic steroids in 1997. The CAS upheld the ban.
She was 28 at the time and the ban effectively ended her competitive swimming career. Smith was not stripped of her Olympic medals as she had never tested positive for any banned substances.
During Smith's experience at CAS, she developed an interest in the law. After 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 internal Brian WalshMoot Court competition. Her book, Transnational Litigation: Jurisdiction and Procedure was published in 2008 by Thomson Round Hall.[13]
Smith is a specialist in private international law, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, EU law, and the law applicable to disputes following Brexit.[4]
Other activities
In 2007, Smith 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.[14]
In 1996, she released her autobiography, Gold, co-written with Cathal Dervan.
Personal life
In 1993 Smith began training with Dutchdiscus thrower Erik de Bruin, whom she had met in Barcelona. They married in 1996.[15] Smith lives in Kells, County Kilkenny with de Bruin and their two children.
Legacy
While Smith technically remains Ireland's most successful Olympian, male or female and also still technically holds Irish records for the 200m and 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 400m individual medley (long course) and the 400m individual medley (short course) the legitimacy of her achievements is strongly debated in Irish sporting circles.[16][17]
^Crouse, Karen (3 August 2016). "Katinka Hosszu and Her Husband Raise Eyebrows at the Pool". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 August 2016. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, Michelle Smith of Ireland won three gold medals while coached by her husband, a former discus thrower. But she had ascended to the top of international competition at a relatively late age and after a mediocre career. Two years later, she was barred from swimming when it was determined she had manipulated a drug test by spiking her urine sample with alcohol.
