Irish Amateur Swimming Association the national championship held in 1990 at the Guinness Pool. By the turn of the millennium Ireland still did not have an Olympic-sized pool placing any swimmer training here at an enormous disadvantage at international competition. At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta Michelle Smith became Ireland's first Olympic medalist in swimming - winning three golds and a bronze. A shadow was cast over these medals when subsequently in 1998 she was banned for 4 years from the sport for tampering with a urine sample using alcohol, during a mandatory out of competition test. In the late 1990s various abuse
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