Swimming: De Bruin to challenge test methods

MICHELLE DE BRUIN, the triple Olympic swimming champion, yesterday announced a head-on challenge to the four-year ban imposed on her for allegedly tampering with a urine sample she provided at her home in January this year.

The ban would effectively end the 28-year-old's competitive career. Her appeal will be heard before the Court for Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne in four to six weeks' time.

On Thursday, the international swimming federation, Fina, said tests on the sample, carried out at the approved laboratory in Barcelona, indicated it had been manipulated not by a tester by but the swimmer, although Fina said the manner of manipulation remained uncertain. The four-year suspension bars her from all national and international competition.

In a spirited defence at a news conference she called here, De Bruin painted a picture of sports authorities engaged in a "conspiracy" to find an athlete guilty of drug-taking in an effort to uphold their regulatory credentials.

She said she was convinced that Fina had made a concerted effort "to ensure that, by whatever method available to them, a ban was imposed." She said that punitive damages would be sought against Fina, accusing it of "a blatant and mischievous" attempt to ruin her career.

She added: "I think some of their [Fina] rules are really a shambles, and they have to protect themselves and that could be why they have reacted in the way they did and why they may use me as a scapegoat." De Bruin intends to cite pre-hearing comments made by the doping control panel chairman, alleging that she and her husband were guilty, as proof of bias.

The swimmer, who won her Olympic medals in 1996 under her maiden name, Smith, claimed she was targeted "because I am married to this man," gesturing to Eric de Bruin, her coach and former shot-putter, who was for a time suspended for alleged use of a banned substance.

The swimmer has been under a cloud since she soared up the world rankings after linking up with the Dutchman in 1993 and then taking her gold medals at Atlanta.

De Bruin, flanked by her lawyer, Peter Lennon, and her husband, set out a barrage of technical and legal arguments that they claimed showed Fina's ruling to be flawed. She will challenge the reliability of the test sample seal, alleging it would pop open when placed in boiling water, and could have been tampered with later.

Her solicitor said doping control forms for the January test were altered later and did not tally with the copies given to the swimmer, a discrepancy "of crucial importance" if testers' procedures were to be corroborated, he said.

Lennon said: "No one has produced any proof that Michelle has physically tampered with this sample, and that's what's required under the rule of law."

De Bruin's camp accuse Fina of breaching its own rule, putting a burden of proof on Fina where an athlete has not tested positive for a banned substance. More abstruse was Lennon's assertion that it was technically impossible for a sample with a specific gravity reading of 1.05, as shown in the sample provided by De Bruin, to have contained alcohol. The swimmer also said the Barcelona laboratory had used test methods not approved by the sport's authorities.

Later, a glimpse emerged of the personal toll taken by the controversy. She said that when Fina's manipulation charges arrived at her home on 27 April "my husband couldn't bring himself to tell me, and he collapsed in the house twice. When he finally told me I think I cried for two hours."

She flatly rejected suggestions that the marriage was under strain. "I know I have never done anything to put either myself or my family or my country to shame," she said. The Irish public in her home village and radio callers showed a sympathetic response, many noting no proof had emerged that she took any banned substance.

During two hours of media interrogation, she still managed a smile. Reminded of Bill Clinton's congratulations to her in 1996, she was asked if she had any tips for him in his present predicament. She replied: "I wouldn't be qualified to offer him any advice."