Conference tallis::celt

    
    
    ..any one gold medal for Michelle smith in swimming so far.....SIgn of
    changed times..First time we ever had a winner in swimming 
    
    Couple of Olympics ago when the swimmers were finishing up a reporter
    asked the coach how did they get on;  
    
    "Not to bad at all..at least nobody drowned"
    
     Mick
    

    A big `Well Done' to Michelle. More to come, methinks....
    
    Ray....

    ...and she trains in Vancouver, eh.
    
    Pat 

    ...lived in Houston
    
    ...married to a Dutch guy
    
    ...but obviously we know where her heart is...  :v)
    
    
    Congratulations to Michelle (and Ireland). It's nice to
    have a happy story to discuss...

    Michelle has done it again in 400m freestyle. What a gal!...
    
    I think I'm in love....
    
    Ray....

    Great swim. I stayed up to watch it. (Mea culpa.) I really liked the 
    way she handled the bad grace from the American swimmer.
    
    John

    It's sad to see the whispering campaign going on about Michelle. How
    dare she improve! How dare she get fast times! She MUST be on drugs!
    
    Fair play to the girl, any time she has been asked about it she has
    never ducked the question in any way.
    
    BBC Television have been brilliant in their coverage of Michelle but
    BBC Radio 5 Live always seem to want to inject her husband's past
    into the conversation, which is pretty sad tabloid style journalism
    from a (usually) excellent station....
    
    So here's to Michelle sticking it right up them in the 200 fly and
    Medley....
    
    Ray.... 

It's a wonder the BBC hasn't claimed she's British !!  ;-)

If there is any question about drug use, THEN she'll
be identified as the IRISH athlete.

keVin
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

    Thats a bit over the top Kevin isn't it ?
    
    Anyway, what happened in her husband's past ?
    
    Shaun.

    Shaun.. you wouldn't miss the steam off a donkey's fart.
    
    jb!~

    Qui ?.....Moi ?.......c'est pas vrai!
    
    Shaun.

>   Anyway, what happened in her husband's past ?

He's her trainer now, I forget whether he's an athlete or trainer primarily
but he's in the middle of a 4 year drug related ban.


I suppose that they are implying he's been using up some of his old stock!

M

Shaun ...

Only Time Will Tell

Let's give it a few weeks to see how things settle out ..

My understanding is that her husband/coach, 
Dutch discus thrower Eric DeBrujn, is currently
serving a 4 year ban for steroid use.

Let's hope for the best !!

keVin

PS: I'm still trying to locate the lad that coached
    that "amazing Kilkenney runner" in last years
    Dublin Marathon ..  ;-)
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

    The success of Michelle Smith is great to watch and also a very
    interesting story to follow.  An article in today's Boston Globe (which
    is normally quite freindly to anything Irish) commented on the reaction
    to her success.  It seems that the majority of the cognoscenti poolside
    are just cynically assuming she is on drugs, according to writer Bob
    Ryan in an article titled "Dirty Pool" or something like that.  Even
    Janet Evans, the US swimmer, was rather ungracious in confirming the
    rumours of drug use and making some comment about the Irish team
    breaking the rules by entering her in the 200m freestyle.  Also, the
    US swimming authorities were very vitrolic in their attempts to stop
    her racing, even forcing the Olympic committee to meet at 3:00 AM the
    morning of the race.  Funny, I thought that the Irish were the best 
    begrudgers around!  We're being out-begrudged!
    
    Anyway, Michelle has been superb and very convincing in responding to
    these accusations.  In my opinion, she is innocent, and I know that she
    is certainly innocent until proven guilty.  Good luck to her in the
    race on Wednesday and Friday.  At least there is some good news to read
    about Ireland.  Long may her success continue.
    
    regards, Ken Hanly   

This morning I caught the tail end of an interview with Michelle.  She has been
accused of using performance enhancing drugs.  It seems that at the age of 26 she 
has taken 17 seconds off of her time, plus the fact that her husband, who is now her 
coach,was banned from his sport after testing positive for steroids.  She said her
improvement is due to her husband taking over her training, using track and field 
methods to turn her into a champion.

That aside, she missed the official qualifying date of July 5th, and was allowed to 
swim a one-person time trial at a 10 and under Swim meet in Florida.  This is what 
the Americans are upset about, because if she hadn't have been in the race, America's 
sweetheart, Janet Evans would have qualified for the finals.   

In the interview, Michelle said that because of her husband's past, she is the most
tested athlete in Ireland.  She said for every one test the Americans received, she
receives 5.  She says, "I've been tested so often, I know how they take their coffee".

A few weeks ago I saw a show about the Chinese Women swimmers.  Many of them have tested
positive for steroids.  All you had to do was look at them.  It was so obvious.  They had
extremely low voices and very masculine physiques.  Michelle certainly doesn't look like
she's using steroids.

They also mentioned that Ireland does not a single 50-meter pool.

Julie

    I was asleep in my semi-detached box in Ennis last night when I was
    awoken by the sound of shouts in the other half of the house and
    elsewhere on the estate. At first I thought the couple next door were
    having a row, then I thought there was a fight going on amoung drunks
    on the street, and then I realised it was Michelle winning her second gold.
    
    Re drugs, there was an article in last week's Irish Medical News/Times
    by a doctor stating that two Irish athletes had tested positive for
    drugs. No names of course. I didn't read the article. I presume they
    were second rung athletes who don't attract publicity. I only scanned
    the article, but it should be in the pile in the kitchen so I'll check
    it out.
    
    Kevin      
                   

    As regards Chinese athletes, another point that has to be made concerns
    the fact their enormous improvement in recent years in
    athletics/swimming has been limited exclusively to female competition.
    That alone should be cause for suspicion.
    
    As for Michelle Smith, *no one* should be considered guilty until
    proved to be so. She's certainly not the first athlete to make a
    meteoric rise to success.
    
    Dom

    Rumour has it that the Americans are entering Tanya harding in the 200 
    meters. -)
    
    MBr

    Ice is pretty thin on the pool..
    
    jb

    re drug testing
    
    The article I referred to in .16 was an interview with Dr Joe Cummisky
    (sp ?),
    who does (some of) the drug testing of Irish athletes. apparently the
    list of forbidden substances is complex, and athletes may infringe
    accidentally. Two Irish athletes have been caught, one is suspected of
    knowingly using an illegal substance. Both got 6 month suspensions.
    Athletes are liable to on the spot tests at any time, which the may not
    refuse. Dr Joe tested Michelle Smith as she came off the set of the
    Late Late Show ! 
    
    Apparently some 10% of athletes suffer from performance induced ashma
    and tend to use steroidal preparations to control this. Some are legal,
    some are not. One thing which surprised me is that he considered, but
    did not administer, prophylactic doses of antibiotics to prevent colds
    etc. Considering the effect of antibiotics on the microflora of the
    intestines it would not be a good idea. The whole business reminds me
    of drugs and horses. It is a good job they have found a test for
    steroids.
    
    On the question of Michelle's improvement, what has always surprised me
    is that swimmers peak so young. Why should this be? I think humans
    reach full strength at 24-28. Was there something going on which tended
    to benefit very young swimmers, and Michelle is an exception in that
    she was No 1 in Ireland and has had time to reach her natural peak
    whereas in other countries someone of her physique would have dropped
    out because the 16 year olds would have been faster ?
    
    BTW the GAA has also been affected by all this hi-tech medicine. I
    understand Limerick Hurlers have prophylactic brain scans to make sure
    nothing is there :-) 
    
    (Sorry James, it was the dibil that made me do it)
    
    Kevin   

    Francie steam-rollered his way to the 2nd round with a 32-7 win over a
    Brazilian. His score is the highest points total achieved so far in the
    tournament....
    
    Ray....

    Sorry to disagree; I have nothing against Michelle Smith winning,
    but I have followed swimming events for years and she wasn't even
    a factor in Barcelona....didn't even make the finals.  Contrary
    to the opinion of another noter, age "typically" does not help one's
    performances.  This has been demonstrated time and again in aquatic
    and track/field events.
    
    Knocking so much time off her previous "best" while aging another
    4 years makes this all the more questionable in many experts minds.
    By the way, the Americans were not the only team to protest Smith's
    competing in the one event.  There is being a tad late in filing
    the appropriate paperwork and then there is being 10 DAYS late in
    filing <--- this is what most countries have objected to.
    
    After seeing how out of shape (little overweight) Janet Evans
    appeared to be, I really didn't expect her to medal at all, much
    less pick up the fifth coveted gold....sadly I was right on this
    one.  However, I watched quite a number of interview with Evans
    and I never once saw her allude to the idea that she thought drugs
    were a factor in Smith's wins.  She was discussing her own  future plans
    and hopes for breaking into sports commentary.  I came away from her
    interviews with the sense that Janet simply didn't have the "fire in
    the belly" to win this year.  My guess is that she wouldn't have
    competed at all if the games had not been in the USA.
    
    FWIW, steroids are but one category of "performance enhancing" drugs.
    Being a resident of Atlanta we got to see several clips on TV showing
    what/how drug testing would conducted.  One doctor who would be over-
    seeing the testing admitted that as fast as they develop new tests to
    show the presence of PE type drugs it seems that someone comes up
    with a new drug.  For those of you who remember Barcelona, please
    remember the Chinese were not caught there....apparently timing, i.e.
    knowing when to stop taking drugs before a meet is a critical factor.
    The Chinese got a bit careless prior to international events after
    the Olympics and that's where they got nailed.
    
    I hope for Michelle's sake nothing shows up at a later date.  The
    Irish have quite a contingent in town and they KNOW how to have a
    good time (plenty of Guiness was stocked prior to their arrival) ;-)
    

    Just to close this note, I gather that Francie is all done, but Damien
    Kelly from Belfast keeps Irish boxing hopes alive.
    
    Regards, Ken Hanly

    Damaen (unusual spelling of the name) lost in the quarterfinalf his
    weight division.  I think that is is for Irish boxers in the
    competition.
    
    Regards    Ken H.