1996 Olympics
Smith was single-handedly responsible for Ireland's second-largest ever medal haul at one Olympics. She did not qualify for the 400m freestyle event by the July 5 deadline, but did so two days later. She only applied for the event after she had arrived in Atlanta for the games, and the IOC granted her an exception. After she qualified for the final and pushed the US swimmer Janet Evans to ninth place, and out of the finals, the US Swimming association tried to get her disqualified, but were unsuccessful. At a later conference, Evans highlighted that accusations of Smith doping had been heard by her around poolside. Smith later received an apology from Evans as her comments lead to Smith being treated poorly by US media.
Read more about this topic: Michelle Smith