DUAL European champion Michelle Smith, the first Irish swimmer to win gold at a major FINA championship, is poised for another first prior tots next month's Atlanta Olympics.
The 26 year old Irish champion and national record holder for all disciplines, is to marry her Dutch coach and fiance, of four years, Eric de Bruin, 12 days before competition starts in Atlanta. The ceremony is arranged for the Dutch town of Hardingeveld on July 11th. The couple first met in the Olympic village at the Barcelona Games while competing for their respective countries. They intend setting up home in Ireland after the Olympics.
De Bruin, a silver medal winner in the discus in Barcelona, has prepared the Dutch athletics team for Atlanta while supervising Michelle's daily training programmes. He has successfully applied track and field methods, in training, to established swimming techniques, a formula that has proved a key factor in the Irish swimmer's success rate.
Smith had all but made up her mind to quit swimming after a quite dismal failure in Barcelona but, fortunately, was persuaded, by a discerning De Bruin, to persist and continue in the sport - a decision that has reaped rich rewards for the Irish swimmer and which has seen her progress to join the elite of her disciplines, catapulting her into the limelight as a real medal hope in Atlanta.
Two other Irish swimmers. Colin Louth and Chantal Gibney, are on the Olympic waiting list, however, it remains to be seen whether it's for next month or in Sydney four years hence. "Both youngsters were quite brilliant in the recent Grand Prix super finals in Sheffield and have achieved the Olympic "B" standard," said IASA secretary Celia Millane.
Competitors of younger years, are poised to hog the limelight at the Guinness pool in Dublin on Sunday, when the Junior interprovincial championships are decided. The championships involve the best prospects in all four provinces at under 11, 12, 13 and 14 years. There are two sessions listed 1.45 p.m. and 5.0 p.m., warm up is at 1.00.
