20 moments that shook Irish Sport - on RTE now.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

I genuinely find it amazing that anybody can defend Smith and can only assume that, at least to a certain extent, the posters supporting her are either on the wind-up or are so blinded by a false sense of patriotism that they can't see this cheat for what she is.

[Galforever]

If Brian O'Driscoll had any balls on him he would have dumped Martin Johnson on his hole the day of the anthems in Landsdowne Road, Would have loved to see the reaction if Mick Galway or Paul O'Connell was captain that day.

Yeah, would have loved to seen what happened if Galwey was captain.

O'Driscoll mentioned that some of the team wanted to stand in front of the england team but he decided not to.

He "admired" them for doing it 

[corn02]

Irish eyes were smiling during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Michelle Smith was the pride of Ireland after winning three gold and one bronze medal in the pool.

No one else was smiling. Her rise to the top of the swimming world was extremely suspicious.

In two previous Olympic Games, Smith's best result was 17th in the 200-metre backstroke.

In 1993, she was ranked 90th in the world in the 400 individual medley, but after training with husband Erik de Bruin – a former Dutch discus thrower who was under a four-year suspension for failing a drug test – she vaulted into 17th in the world by the next year.

By Atlanta, the 26-year-old Smith had won several European titles and trimmed a whopping 17 seconds off two personal bests.

After her Olympic success, it was discovered that FINA, swimming's international federation, had repeatedly expressed concern that Smith was unavailable for out-of-competition drug tests from 1995 onward.

Finally, in 1998, two drug testers showed up at Smith and de Bruin's home.

Smith gave them a sample, but because she was wearing a bulky sweater, the tester couldn't see what she was doing. The sample was sealed and sent to a Barcelona lab for examination. The results were shocking. The sample contained a level of alcohol that would be fatal if consumed by a human.

FINA concluded that the sample had been manipulated, that whiskey had been added as a masking agent and they suspended Smith for four years.

Those athletes who finished behind Smith in 1996 – including Canadians Marianne Limpert (silver) and Joanne Malar (fourth) in the 200IM – can only wonder what might have been.


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The bit that always got me, it appears she simply put whiskey in the sample yes? Surely that would not be enough to be fatal to a human?

[full back]

The bit that always got me, it appears she simply put whiskey in the sample yes? Surely that would not be enough to be fatal to a human?

She put whiskey in & if your p1ss had that much alcohol in it you would die i.e imagine how much alcohol there was in her system if she was p1ssing full strength whiskey

[Rav67]

The bit that always got me, it appears she simply put whiskey in the sample yes? Surely that would not be enough to be fatal to a human?

The concentration of alcohol in her urine was so high as to be impossible for a living human.  You could drink all that whiskey but your body would absorb a lot of it before you piss it out.

[corn02]

ah yes, of course it never crossed my mind that they would be testing it as piss and not simple whiskey. Very stupid on my behalf.

[witnof]

ah yes, of course it never crossed my mind that they would be testing it as piss and not simple whiskey. Very stupid on my behalf.

Or maybe Corn you were just taking the piss

[under the bar]

The sample contained a level of alcohol that would be fatal if consumed by a human.

I'm sure Shane McGowan could give that theroy a firm testing.....