IRISH triple Olympic swimming champion Michelle Smith could face sanctions, including long-term suspension, if she is found to be unattainable to out-of- competition drug testers on one more occasion. Swimming's governing body FIN, A contacted the Irish swimming authorities in January to express concern at the difficulties involved in contacting Smith for out-of-competition drug tests. FINA has expressed its concern over this issue on at least two previous occasions.

On January 16th of this year the FINA (Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur) office in Lausanne contacted the Dublin headquarters of the Irish Amateur Swimming Association and referred to an IASA fax three months earlier.

FINA complained that an out-of-competition test programme form supplied by Michelle Smith to FINA last September was "rather vague." They also noted that the advance daily calendar was not filled out. Swimmers must supply FINA with an advance daily calendar of training sites on a quarterly basis and, if they are to be away from their designated training base for a period of 4 hours or more, they must inform their domestic association of their pending absence.

The fax went on to draw the Irish association's attention to FINA rules approved at the federation's General Congress in Atlanta last summer.

"In relation to out of competition testing please consider Rule DC6 "Unannounced Testing" which indicate that sanctions may be imposed on swimmers who are reported unavailable for testing more than two times. We have attached herewith a "Report Form for an Unavailable Athlete" sent to FINA by our independent testing agency IDTM regarding Michelle Smith."

Rule DC6 under the Medical Rules section of the FINA handbook equates more than two missed drug tests with a refusal to take a drug test. A refusal is regarded in FINA, law as a positive test and punishable by suspension of up to four years. Smith was previously found unavailable for out-of-competition testing in the second quarter of 1295.

The form returned in January by International Doping Tests and Management, the Swedish agency which conducts drug testing on behalf of FlNA. relates to Smith's on availability for out-of-competition testing on October 13th, 1996.

The "comments" section of the form states that "Michelle had not yet returned from the USA. She did not return until the 15th of October." It is noted in handwriting that her federation was not informed.

Smith was in New York when testers called to her residence in Celbridge, Co Kildare. Other documents refer to previous instances of difficulty in contacting Smith. On January 17th, 1996 Gunnar Werner, the honorary secretary, of FINA, contacted the IASA stating that FINA/IDTM tried to contact in the first three quarters of 1995, at the address provided by your Federation, the following swimmer and unfortunately she was unattainable Ms Michelle Smith."

The letter went on to state that for future unsuccessful attempts to collect samples from swimmers at the locations where they were reported, to be the swimmer may be sanctioned according to FINA rule Med 4.6. 11. Smith won two gold medals at the European.

championships in Vienna in August 1995. None of her tests at those championships were positive.

Cornel Mareuleseu, executive director of FINA operations in Lausanne, Switzerland told The Irish Times that, with reference to 1995, Smith had passed two drug tests that year but had, been reported unavailable once in the second quarter of that year.

"We are not disclosing the number of `no shows' to the media" added Mareuleseu. If we have something to announce we will announce it. We are following these cases and when we are going to be at a certain point the doping panel is going to judge the situation and make a decision wherever they consider the rule applies."

Smith surprised the swimming world when she won three individual swimming gold, medals at last summer's Olympic Games in Atlanta. The atmosphere of celebration surrounding those triumphs was tempered, however, by repeated allegations about possible use of performance enhancing drugs by Smith and her coach/husband Erik de Bruin. Smith has never failed a drugtest and as recently as last week threatened to take legal action against media outlets whom she considered to be spreading innuendo.

Her Dutch coach and husband de Bruin, a former world class athlete, received a four-year ban from athletics in 1993 when he tested positive for testosterone and the pregnancy hormone Human Chorionic Gonadatropin at an athletics meeting in Cologne. Erik de Bruin has always denied the accusations. Soon after his ban he became Smith's coach and the couple moved to Holland where they still reside.

The IASA had been previously aware of FINA's concerns regarding the contactability of Ireland's leading swimmer. The minutes of an IASA executive meeting over a year earlier note, firstly, Smith's unwillingness (due to illness) to take part in any high level competition before the World Championships and secondly that Smith had not supplied the association with an address at which she could be contacted in Holland: It was noted that all communication at the time was through Smith's parents in Rathcoole, Co Dublin.

Two years later Smith was a world class swimmer seeking Olympic success at the third attempt.

In the run-up to Atlanta she restricted herself to small meets in Holland, France and the USA. The directors of the Dutch national championships plus the directors of the meets in France and the USA have confirmed, to The Irish Times that no testing took place at those competitions.

Harm Beyer, the chairman of the FINA Commission on Doping, declined to comment to The Irish Times on any specific cases relating to the work of his commission.

"I could give you some speculation but I am not ready to do so. The facts as outlined would be unusual. However, as chairman of the panel which will be in charge of imposing sanctions in case of violation of doping rules I am obliged to take the position that I remain neutral."

Doping and, the suspicions which the subject arouses, have plagued the sport of swimming for over two decades now, particularly in respect of the astonishing advances made by women swimmers from East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s and by Chinese women in the 1990s. China won 12 of the 16 women's titles in the World Championships of 1994, a record which was tarnished by seven positive drug tests one month later.

Since then, FINA has stepped up its campaign against doping: 273 out-of-competition tests were carried out worldwide in 1994, 375 tests were conducted in 1995 and 560 tests were performed in the first six months of 1996 before the Atlanta Olympic Games. Russian swimmer Denis Pankratov claimed to have been tested eight times in an eight week period last June and July.

FINA sources suggest that up to 50 failures to locate athletes for out-of-competition testing might occur in the course of a calendar year.

In Atlanta last summer at the federation's general congress, the rule concerning missed drug tests and refusals was amended to allow for a maximum four-year penalty for those found guilty.

FINA also moved to punish swim federations whose members register four positive tests in the course of one year. An amendment proposed by the Irish delegation was accepted making the federation of a country in which a swimmer resides liable to punishment instead of the swimmer's country of origin.