Michelle Smith's Effects On Athletes

Michelle Smith is an Irish swimmer. Originally, Smith was a relatively unknown swimmer, not successful enough to qualify at an Olympics level with her times. However, after meeting Erik de Bruin and establishing a new training regime, she improved her times, now becoming well known for her performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, in which she won three gold and one bronze medal. People were already perplexed at the sudden success of Smith, but two years later, in 1998, an unannounced drug test was conducted by FINA, which found androstenedione, a hormone that helps develop testosterone, in her urine samples, which was then masked by whiskey. It is unknown what caused Smith to take performance enhancing drugs, specifically in the

This is to prevent the chance that their samples would be tampered with, compared to if the drug test was announced, meaning that athletes would have had enough time to plan their potential tampers. For some time, FINA had trouble trying to locate Smith for the drug test, finding that she was consistently unavailable, or just could not get to her front door. But on January 10 1998, Smith was greeted with a spontaneous drug test in her home. Four to six minutes after FINA’s arrival, Smith returned with a urine sample. But after testing conducted in a laboratory, not only was the sample found to be tampered with with whiskey, but traces of androstenedione were found too. By diluting the urine sample with alcohol, Smith was able to hide any usage of other Performance Enhancing Drugs. By taking the steroid of androstenedione, the body produces more testosterone and oestrogen. This hormone helps produce more strength, and improves endurance, meaning swimmers could swim stronger, but also for longer. Providing an increase in red blood cell production, more oxygen is then sent around the body, also aiding the swimmer swim for longer periods of time. Additionally, androstenedione improves stamina, and increases muscle size. The hormone also has the ability to minimize the mass of fat, paving a way for increased muscles. Furthermore, androstenedione helps in muscle

After getting an insight into the law environment during her appeal of the punishments placed upon her, Smith became intrigued in the field, returning to study in tertiary education after retiring in 1999. In the end, the interventions did not help her career or affect it much at all. Smith was already in the latter half of the career, and could have even been considered a ‘late bloomer’, reaching the peak in her swimming career when she was already 27 years old. While the circumstances were not thoroughly ideal for Smith (no one wants to have their career end because of discovered drug use), her swimming career was going to end soon anyway, so the interventions and punishments implemented on her did not affect much in the