A question about Michelle Smith's position in Irish Sporting History

I wouldn't agree that she never entered the Irish psyche as a sporting great.

Fair enough, briefly I suppose, but the doubts were there from the start.  let me rephrase.  Do people still consider her as an Irish Sporting great?

I doubt it myself. The sporting commentators, bar Jimmy Magee maybe, don't really recognize her greatness anymore.

I remember her as a drug cheat,Nothing else.

No Oz i don't think so, given the doubts that cropped up straight away.

Deservedly consigned to oblivion...or, one might say ,sunk without trace.

right up there with Sean Kelly & Stephen Roche..

why were her medals and Times never taken away like what happened with notorious cheats such as Ben Johnson??

consult the Olympic record books and you will find to this day 3 golds and a bronze for Michelle Smith (Ireland)

I dont know if Michelle was guilty or not;but she deserved another gold medal if she was guilty; her acting in the  press conference was something else.

Carl Lewis and Linford Christie are 2 who come to mind who were actually caught drug cheating.
I don't recall Michelle Smith being caught with any prohibitive substances in her system,maybe I am wrong?

Two years after the 1996 Summer Olympics, FINA banned Smith for four years for tampering with her urine sample using alcohol.[6] 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. Unusually for a CAS hearing, De Bruin's case was heard in public, at her own lawyer's request.[7] FINA submitted evidence from Dr Jordi Segura, head of the IOC-accredited laboratory in Barcelona, which said she took Androstenedione, a metabolic precursor of testosterone, in the previous 10 to 12 hours before being tested. It also became known that two previous samples, taken between November 1997 and March 1998, had also shown traces of Androstenedione.[8][9] 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 only samples subsequent to her Olympic involvement tested positive.[10]

remembered as a cheat.....whatever about roche,i would not put sean kelly in same catagory as previous has said for simple reason....kelly always had a bad day during the tour de france....to me proving that he wasnt on certain substances ,,,,he was the king of the one day race but when it came to day in day out punishment his body succumbed to tiredness...although i do recall him winning the vuelta,,,maybe not as punishing...this is only my humble opinion on him.

Roche won the Tour in 87, Blood doping became illegal in 88.

Cian O'Connor pulled a great stunt with the B sample, if memory serves me correctly. That B sample controvercy was never properly investigated.

All the main womens world records in track and field are all from the 80s, the worst decade ever for dopeing.[all former eastern block Counties]

Ireland's greatest Olympian.

Ireland's greatest athlete.

The fact is she was the the best swimmer in the Atlanta games.

She was done down by the intolerant liberal elite who couldn't bear that a Gaelgoir was the best swimmer in the world,done down by the self loathers like the opening poster who couldn't bear that an ordinary Irish girl was world champion.

Now if she was stolen from some other country like Mo Farah she would be hailed as the face of the new Ireland.

RTE managed to excise her from history but they can't change the fact she won those medals and she still has them because she never failed a drug test.

Two years after the 1996 Summer Olympics, FINA banned Smith for four years for tampering with her urine sample using alcohol.[6] 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. Unusually for a CAS hearing, De Bruin's case was heard in public, at her own lawyer's request.[7] FINA submitted evidence from Dr Jordi Segura, head of the IOC-accredited laboratory in Barcelona, which said she took Androstenedione, a metabolic precursor of testosterone, in the previous 10 to 12 hours before being tested. It also became known that two previous samples, taken between November 1997 and March 1998, had also shown traces of Androstenedione.[8][9] 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 only samples subsequent to her Olympic involvement tested positive


That's why she was not stripped of the medals

I am dishonest for posting something factual, go figure

Its not that hard.

The statement you posted is propaganda which is why you posted it.

I could never understand where the improvement came from,she seemed an average enough swimmer and never won anything of note before the Olympics.

propaganda get a grip ffs

She was an amateur when she broke the Irish records,she then went professional and became a full time athlete.

Its propaganda to say there were traces of androstenedione without saying hom much and also not stating it occurs naturally in women.

She won gold in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual melody in the European Championships at Vienna a year before Atlanta.

Fair enough,i wouldn't want to do the woman a discredit if she was innocent,big gulf in class from the euros to world competition.
Polish woman in the 60,Klobukowska(?) got stripped of her sprinting titles in the 60,s after being accused of being a man,she had a baby girl the year after her disqualifications.

The Polish athlete failed a gender test.

Castor Semenya is a recent case of someone of doubtful gender.

Its not as straightforward as some think.

When they first introduced gender testing in around 1966 Tamara and Irina Press two Russian throwers never competed again.

Dora Ratjen was the pride of Hitlers 1936 athletes, real name was Hermann and worth googling the image,how did he get away with it.

a disgrace, end of.

Did you know Wildman that Tamara Press shaved herself? and im not talking about below the belt Either

I'm not surprised.

Telling also that Michelle De Bruin has had two healthy children and still retains her Irish beauty,all those drugs the naysayers maintain was pumped into her had no side effects.