Hat TrickFiring back at skeptics, Ireland's Michelle Smith won her third gold medal in as many triesby Gerry Callahan
Her incomparable drive and determination do not end with the race. She hops out of the pool, pulls up a chair in front of the cameras, and the competition rages on for Michelle Smith of Ireland. The cheating allegations have not disappeared, but neither has Smith's defiant response.
Smith won the 200-meter individual medley last night at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. It was her third gold medal of these Games, two more than the highly touted Australian and Chinese swim teams have combined. An Irish journalist prefaced a question to Smith by labeling her "the greatest Irish sports story ever," but the fawning comments from her countrymen were again followed by questions—from reporters from the rest of the world—pertaining to performance-enhancing drugs. Smith's races have been so outstanding, her improvement so drastic, that no one without a brogue seems prepared to accept it as simply the result of hard work.
For the third time in five nights Smith raised her arms—and questions about her feat.
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With each victory, Smith seems to have grown more agitated and combative. What do you expect from the greatest Irish sports story ever, sheepish giggles and an apology? At time she sounds as if she got her golds across the Georgia Tech campus, at the boxing venue, as a scrappy welterweight who will step outside with any man in the room.
"I just have to laugh at it," she said. "Every time I'm tested I come up negative, and I have been tested again and again and again. For every time someone on the U.S. team is tested, I'm tested five times."
Because Smith, 26, won her first gold (in the 400 individual medley) on Saturday, her postrace drug test has presumably been completed. IOC policy states that test results are made public only when they are positive, but the National Olympic Committee of Ireland has asked the IOC to release the results of Smith's tests to silence the cynics. Smith? She insists she couldn't care less. "I just try to use it to my advantage," she said. "If people put obstacles in my way, it just makes me try harder."
While the U.S. has dominated the swimming competition as a team, Smith has been the outstanding individual of opening week. In Dublin, the American embassy is receiving protests from Irish citizens who are upset at the steroid accusations, and the pubs are extending their hours to provide time for Smith-related celebrations. When she competes in the 200 butterfly tomorrow—an event she considers her strongest—Smith will attempt to equal the women's record for individual swimming gold medals won in an Olympics. Kristin Otto of East Germany, in 1988, was the last swimmer to accomplish the feat. It was later revealed that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs.
Smith's doubters point to her incredible improvement—she cut 19 seconds off her 400 freestyle time in 15 months—and the track record of her husband, Erik de Bruin, a Dutch discus thrower who was suspended for drug use three years ago. When asked if Smith deserved the benefit of the doubt since she has never failed a drug test, U.S. coach Richard Quick said yesterday, "We've been giving these people the benefit of the doubt for 30 years. I think it's time we take a close look at that kind of improvement."
A silver medalist in Barcelona, Rozsa huffed and puffed and blew away the field in the 200 breaststroke.
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Smith, with gold medal number three draped around her neck, fired back, pointing out that her winning time in the 400 free wasn't close to the 1988 winning time of U.S. swimmer Janet Evans, who has never been accused of dabbling in drugs. "If you look at the events that Janet swam in 1988, she won the 400 individual medley, she won the 400 freestyle, and then she went on to win the 800," Smith said. "In the 400 freestyle, her time was 4:03, and my winning time [in Atlanta] was 4:07. She maintains she is drug-free, but she is swimming faster than me."
Smith has repeatedly attributed her stunning improvement to an upgraded training regimen, which her husband adapted from his track and field experience. According to one report, she had intended to withdraw from last night's race with a sore shoulder, but she insisted her only physical problem was a rash she developed from shaving. She said she had considered pulling out to concentrate on the 200 butterfly, but the preliminary times convinced her that she had a chance for a gold.
After three laps, it appeared that Smith may have finally run out of steam, but a surge in the final 50 meters allowed her to finish in 2:13.93, almost half a second ahead of Marianne Limpert of Canada.
In other events, Denis Pankratov won the 100 butterfly in a world-record 52.27, and Norbert Rozsa of Hungary took the 200 breaststroke. The U.S. continued to dominate the relays as the women's 4x100 medley team blew away the field. Beth Botsford, Amanda Beard, Angel Martino and Amy Van Dyken combined to post a time of 4:02.88, more than two seconds ahead of the Australians. It was the only medal of the day for the U.S., but the home team continued to add to its lead in the medal standings. The Americans have piled up 18 swimming medals, including eight golds, well ahead of runner-up Russia, which has won three golds among its seven medals at the pool. China and Australia continue to sink: The Aussies have no gold medals and only two silver and four bronze, while the Chinese, who have won only one gold and five total medals, have taken to complaining about the lack of Chinese food in the athletes' village.
Ireland, meanwhile, also has three swimming gold medals—and all three hang from the neck of one defiant and determined woman.
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