MICHELLE SMITH made quite a splash in Galway. Needing an escort from her private changing room in the Leisureland complex for her first competitive swim in Ireland since Atlanta, the triple gold medallist strode through a sea of good will, duly winning her first race in the 100 metre individual medley before setting an Irish record yesterday in the 200 metre Freestyle.
Here the Irish Amateur swimming Association (IASA) had a rolemodel. Not Dutch. Not German. Not American or British. An Irish girl, now a star. The youngsters waved their scraps of paper and parents manhandled her into family photographs as if she were one of their own. Smith smiled and obliged.
At heart, the sell-out meet was as much a celebration of the Dublin woman's three gold and one bronze haul at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Centre as much as a serious international competition. Some Irish records fell, some serious overseas talent was on view and some juniors, notably Lee Kelleher, gave the impression that in five years they could well be the swimmers turning heads. But in reality it was Smith's presence that loomed large enough to eclipse virtually everything else.
Smith signed the autographs, effortlessly won her races and organisers proclaimed one of their most successful swimming meets ever in terms of media interest.
But little has changed since her windswept home coming last August. The public adulation is still emotive and warm and for the swimmer.
And the post race press conference's too remain largely tetchy affairs divided between a significant collection of cynics from Ireland and outside and those who robustly defend her reputation as Ireland's most accomplished swimmer ever.
This weekend's combination of her detractors and her supporters was no different in substance from what came before. But the Olympic Champion is fighting back. What was originally relayed by the IASA to be a press conference by "invitation only" transpired to be only a fanciful notion. No invitations were issued. Everyone turned up. "I'd like to restrict the conversation this weekend to my swimming if that's ok," she informed the gathering, who had waited for an hour while she provided a random sample to the Irish Sports Council, the first drugs test they have carried out.
The conference was at times a surreal event. An old Scottish gent asked some unintelligble questions and blew kisses at Smith while a UTV reporter stubbornly got up her nose.
"The coverage of your achievements and recent events ... has that interfered with your training?" he asked. "I'd like to restrict the questions to my swimming," replied Smith "But that relates to your swimming," he piped. "It doesn't really. I'm a swimmer and that's what I do. I don't read the newspapers. I go to the pool every day and I swim for five hours," she firmly answered. "But you have issued writs," he offered. "If you want to discuss that you'll have to contact my solicitor," she informed him.
Not yet at full tilt in regard to her famously savage training sessions, Smith has not yet decided on her schedule for the year, even going so far as to suggest that the European Championships in Seville, Spain, in August and the World Championships in Perth, Australia, next year are not necessarily a definite part of her plans.
While it seems highly unlikely that she would miss either event unless injured or unwell, she is intent on framing things into a time schedule that suits her own needs.
"I haven't decided 109 per cent that I will go to Seville. I'm training and building up my fitness. I'll see how things go and decide then. I haven't picked a date this year towards which I am going to peak. I'm not sure when I will," she said also pointing to the fact that a World Championship medal is one that she does not yet possess.
Smith's first race on Saturday in the 100 IM pitted her against Cork's Lee Kelleher. The young 14-year-old was well up in the contest and actually touched the halfway mark marginally ahead of the field before falling behind on her weakest leg, the breaststroke. The champion then duly extended her lead before comfortably beating German Antje Holst in a race that was really never in dispute.
Yesterday Smith rewarded the enthusiastic crowd with a new Irish short course record in the 200 metre Freestyle, bringing her collection of national records to 13. Her time of 2:01.38 beat Trojan's Chantal Gibney into second position and shaded Leander's Marion Madine's 1995 record by less than half a second.
In the six available Freestyle Irish records between 50 metres and 1,500 metres, Smith is missing only the 400 metres, which Madine still holds.
Kelleher also came out of the 100 metre butterfly with a worthy time, but just outside the Irish junior record. Holland's Wilma van Hofwegan dominated the four length race with the 14-year-old trailing in 1:03.57, half a second off the record.
On Saturday Collin Louth was also able to steal some of the Smith thunder by claiming a record of his own in the 200 metre butterfly. The Cormorant swimmer, who came second in the race to Hamburg's Chriscard Bremer, posted 2:01.64 to take New Ross swimmer Paul McCarthy's record by 31 seconds. McCarthy came in third well off his best time.
