Michelle Smith
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Full name | Michelle Smith de Bruin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Individual medley | December 16, 1969||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coach | Erik de Bruin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Michelle Smith de Bruin (born 16 December 1969 in
Despite the ban for manipulating samples, none of Smith's swimming achievements have been annulled, and she remains Ireland's most successful Olympian.
Swimming career
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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.
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
Sample tampering ban
Two years after the
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.
Her coach and husband,
Legal career
During Smith's experience at CAS, she developed an interest in the law. After officially announcing her retirement from swimming in 1999, she returned to university, graduating from
Smith is an expert in
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.[12]
In 1996, she released her autobiography, Gold, co-written with Cathal Dervan.
Personal life
In 1993 Smith began training with
Legacy
Smith remains Ireland's most successful Olympian, male or female. She holds Irish records for the 200m and 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly, and 400m individual medley (long course). She also holds the Irish record in the 400m individual medley (short course).[14]
Katie Taylor's gold medal in boxing in 2012 was Ireland's first gold since Smith's three in 1996.[15]
See also
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
- List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
References
- ^ "Michelle lives for fast lane". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
- ^ "Four-year ban for Michelle". Irish Independent. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
- ^ "Court hears de Bruin appeal". The Irish Echo. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-78225-034-0.
- ^ Hodgson, Guy (23 July 1996). "Swimming: Smith takes gold despite drug slur – Sport – The Independent". London. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022.
- ^ "Michelle: I Forgive Evans; Smith Receives Apology From Fallen U.S. – Irish Voice | HighBeam Research". Archived from the original on 5 November 2013.
- ^ a b "Sport | De Bruin banned". BBC News. 6 August 1998. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Lane 9 News Archive: Michelle DeBruin's Ban Upheld: A Courtroom Account". Archived from the original on 3 February 2013.
- ^ Darius Whelan. "Irish Legal System and General Material on Irish Law". Ucc.ie. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
- ^ "Law Library | Michelle Smith de Bruin".
- ^ "Celebrities". Celebrities Go Wild. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012.
- ^ TARNISHED GOLDEN GIRL, Chicago Tribune
- ^ Swim Ireland records updated December 2020 and June 2021 https://www.swimireland.ie/index.php/competitions-events/records-rankings-results
- ^ "'Good enough to beat men': boxer Katie Taylor etches her name into sporting folklore". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 August 2012.