Michelle Smith ninth in the preliminary swims with only the top eight advancing. Smith did not submit her qualifying time for the 400m freestyle event before the 5 July deadline but did so two days later with the Irish Olympic officials insisting they had been given permission to submit the qualifying time after the deadline. Smith applied for the event after she had arrived in Atlanta. After Smith qualified at the expense of Evans, the US Swimming Federation, supported by the German and Netherlands swimming teams, challenged a decision to allow Smith to compete but were unsuccessful. At a later conference, Evans
Ian Thorpe and drug testing Games, they'd be naive". Although swimmers and coaches praised him, he was condemned by FINA, who accused him of bringing the sport into disrepute. Thorpe was selected by the United Nations to lead an anti-recreational drugs campaign in Japan, as well as promotional work for UNICEF for UN Children's Week. Ian Thorpe and drug testing Ian Thorpe, an Australian freestyle swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist, has been targeted in the 2000s for criticism alleging his athletic achievements have been fueled by the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and steroid drug doping. Despite numerous tests no proof of these allegations has