THE FATHER of triple Olympic gold medallist Michelle Smith said yesterday he was "very saddened" by ongoing innuendo that the swimmer had improved her performance by taking banned substances.
Criticising recent newspaper articles, Mr Brian Smith said her improvement can be explained by her move into professional swimming and her changed training methods.
"This has been going on for a long time and has taken its toll on the family. The majority of people in this country believe in Michelle. They know that Michelle won these medals fair and square and it's unfortunate that certain people, for their own agenda, have written these articles discrediting her achievements."
Speaking to Marian Finucane on the Radio 1 Liveline show Mr Smith said his daughter had been showing a steady improvement consistently breaking Irish and other records, in the 10 year period before Atlanta.
"She has about 150 records. Some of these were broken by five, 10, 15 and 20 seconds. This is documented." On one occasion, he said, she improved as much as 10 seconds within two days.
From 1992 her training became far more intense. "She changed from a person who trained 2 1/2 hours a day, who was going to school, who was working ... to a full time professional who was doing six hours a day of quality training. If you train for four years at six hours a day and you can't improve, then there is something wrong with you."
On the swimmer's unavailability for a test at a supplied address in Celbridge, Co Kildare, last year, Mr Smith said she had informed the relevant authorities that she would be in the US at the time.
"The IASA had been notified of this and FINA had been notified about it," he said.
The widely reported letter sent by FINA, the international body for swimming, outlining the penalties for failing to be available for more than two out of competition tests was a standard letter sent to the top 50 swimmers, he added.
"Michelle has been tested by FINA something like 14 times this year. They are quite happy, they are quite satisfied. They just do this because it's standard procedure."
He blamed the American media for starting the innuendoes after the former US Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans was defeated at the Atlanta Games last summer.
"The Americans were completely knocked back. They didn't know what to do. They just couldn't take it that somebody had come along and beaten their finest, and relegated the great Janet Evans down to a substitute. They just couldn't find any other thing to do than try to denigrate her achievements."
However, he also criticised Irish journalists who have spread "misinformation" about the swimmer and drugs testing.
"It's part of their job to report accurately. It's not part of their job to report innuendoes. If they have proof let them say it. Why don't they come out and say she took drugs?"
Mr Smith said he was not aware whether the rumours had affected his daughter's earnings but they have had an effect on her personally.