Was Michelle Smith/de Brun guilty?

No. It was all a big pıss take.

Kinda obvious given that she never won anything after that

Her husband was keen on the five finger discount he thought Dunnes were offering. Not averse to a bit of shoplifting. So that might be a clue, or not.

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. 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

The labs say she tested positive she has always denied using performance enhancing drugs.

Her boyfriend and coach also received a ban for testing positive. During his suspension, de Bruin gave an interview in which he said: "Who says doping is unethical? Sport is by definition dishonest".

The quote had damning relevance as his wife sustained a form surge that made most purple patches look like faded lilac.

But a year after her Olympic success two local drug testers showed up at the de Bruin home in Kells. but could not get past the locked gates.

Finally, de Bruin let them in but disappeared for five minutes and handed over a urine sample which smelt of whiskey.

Forensic scientists later testified that had she digested the amount of whiskey needed to produce a sample like that she would have died, but she still owns her Olympic medals because she did not test positive in competition.

The FINA officials said the sample smelt of whiskey and when it finally reached Barcelona for testing, it was found to have "unequivocal signs of adulteration". As a result Smith was banned for four years. Smith's team argued that her sample had been tampered with but forensic evidence suggested otherwise. CAS withheld the ban and Smith retired from the sport in 1999.

Tellingly RTE's swimming expert, Gary O'Toole, an ex-swimmer who had become a physician, had more than a slight suspicion that something wasn't quite right but was told by the national broadcaster to keep such thoughts to himself when analysing Smith's victories.

As he explained to the Chicago Tribune in 2000: "The directive came down that nobody was to discuss drugs and Michelle Smith on national television. In a way for me at the time, it was great. I knew everything about drugs. Everything. I worked with them all through medical school.

It suited me not to talk about it because if you've got 1.5 million TV sets tuned in to watch someone achieve something, you don't want to be the one to burst the bubble."

She tested positive 3 times for Androstenedione, including in the famous whiskey sample, but it's not what she was prosecuted for. The tampering charge carried a higher suspension and was procedurally much easier as the test for Andro was brand new at the time. The Andro test was submitted as evidence to support the tampering charge as it gave a clear motive for that.

Basically she tested positive for Andro but the tampering charge carried a longer ban sentence so that is what they charged her with which allowed her team to spin the whole 'I'm innocent ' thing.

I'm very much devil's advocate about a lot of stuff (to the point that it annoys people, weirdly) but an unknown swimmer from a country without a strong swimming tradition winning a bunch of Olympic medals... I think there's fair cause for doubting her.

Banjo String wrote: »

Others say the whole thing was faked.

Before we even consider all the hard evidence, hundreds and hundreds of people would have to have kept their mouths shut and the Soviets would have to have been in on it.

It simply doesn't stand to reason.