Michelle Smith

Katie Taylor and her gold medal win in boxing in 2012, the first gold medal for Ireland since Smith's three in 1996, was seen as a cleansing moment for Irish sports since they could now celebrate an Olympic gold medal athlete without any taint or embarrassment.

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.

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 which is respected in legal circles.

In 1999, the Irish national swimming federation wiped clean Smith's records from their books by writing a new constitution that prohibited swimmers who had been or were suspended from holding records. Despite Ireland having just 5 Olympic gold medalists in its history, Smith's accomplishments are mostly ignored by the Irish public and she is no longer celebrated among the pantheon of great Irish athletes.

Two years after the 1996 Summer Olympics, FINA banned Smith for four years for tampering with her urine sample using alcohol. 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, Smith's case was heard in public, at her own lawyer's request. 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. The CAS upheld the ban.

Smith has always denied using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. In 1996, she released her autobiography, Gold, co-written with Cathal Dervan. Smith lives in Kells, County Kilkenny with de Bruin and their two children.

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.

Smith never failed a drug test in her career, but the later tampering case and ban gave new life to the longstanding rumors about her performance. Critics had long pointed to Smith coming from a country with few swimming facilities. That she was never regarded as a potential Olympic champion swimmer early in her career. That all her huge drops in times came after Erik de Bruin began training her in 1993. Erik de Bruin was a Dutch discus thrower with no background in swimming, failed a drug test in 1993, and was banned from competition for four years. That her substantial drops in time came in her mid-20s. An advanced age for a previously lightly regarded swimmer, who could not get out of the preliminary heats in the 1992 Olympics, but only 4 years later at age 26, won three gold medals. She won the 400-meter individual medley in Atlanta in 4:39.18, almost 20 seconds faster than her time at the 1992 Olympics. That her physique greatly changed between the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, with her displaying far broader shoulders and adding a great deal of muscle mass by 1995.

Smith first appeared on the world scene as an 18-year-old at the Seoul Olympics and only 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. In 1993 she trained with Erik de Bruin, whom she had met in Barcelona. Both would start a relationship, and eventually marry in 1996. 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.

Michelle Smith's father taught his daughters how to swim, and Smith was first spotted by a lifeguard in Tallaght swimming pool at age 9. 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 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.

Michelle Smith de Bruin (born 16 December 1969 in Rathcoole, County Dublin) is a retired Irish swimmer who achieved notable success in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, becoming Ireland's most successful Olympian to date, and whose career ended with a ban from the sporting authorities for tampering with a urine sample. She was a triple gold medallist at the Atlanta Games, 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: these events were marked by allegations of doping. Michelle Smith, now more commonly referred to by her married name, Michelle de Bruin, is currently a practising barrister.