Note: For those who don't recall, this case pertains to althetic
performance enhancing drugs in the 1998 Olympics.

In the end it was a pitiful, unheroic tale, full of losers and bereft of
winners. For the guts of five years, we have watched as the Michelle de
Bruin story evolved from whispers within the swimming community through a
fullscale national argument to yesterday's final act.

The words from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne which
completed Michelle de Bruin's slow-burn disgrace gave scant regard to the
national drama which she has provoked on this island. From those who coldly
examined the facts there was no bitter polarisation, no emotional
accusations. Just a clear verdict.

In the aftermath, there is a temptation to worry whether other people will
now generalise about Irish sport. Yesterday stopped Ireland generalising
about its own sport. We are no cleaner or dirtier than anyone else, our
innocence has been stolen.

The short statement from the three judges who listened to two long days of
evidence and dispute back in early May could hardly have been more damning.
De Bruin had failed to prove that the samples were not hers or that a third
party manipulated the samples. Allied to the disclosure during the hearing
that the swimmer had been using the banned drug androstenodione, de Bruin's
reputation is left in shreds.

The CAS left in place the four-year ban imposed by FINA, an extraordinarily
harsh sanction in these times, but one which was preserved because
tampering is not, as is often thought, less serious than a doping offence,
rather it is an attack on the very integrity of the system. The upholding
of the ban was a pointed statement on the seriousness of the offences
committed by de Bruin.

The hearing in Lausanne had been an incredible summation of the facts of
the case. Yves Fortier (Canada), Denis Oswald (Switzerland), and Michael
Beloff (Britain) - de Bruin's own nominee - heard how the swimmer had been
absent from sight for at least four to six minutes on the morning of the
test, when and how the testers had first smelled whiskey, how one of the
tester's view of de Bruin's genitalia had been obstructed during the giving
of urine, how the testers had never once found her at the location where
she said she would be training but had allowed her generous latitude, how
the laboratory had found traces of the steroid androstenodione, how a
forensics laboratory could find no signs of tampering on the canisters.

Listening to the parade of evidence, it seemed a small miracle that the de
Bruin case had even staggered on this far. Yesterday's outcome was
inevitable. From swimming people, the response to news of the ban was
unanimous and welcoming.

"Obviously they have found that FINA has fulfilled the burden of proof. We
have no possibility of looking at the results from Atlanta. I don't think
the samples from the last Olympics are left anywhere. We have no means or
reason to look at that, but we are pleased with this result," said Gunnar
Werner of FINA. "Under present rules we can't look at 1996 again, but in
reality those results are always going to be questionable. To some of

us they were always questionable," said John Leonard of the World Swim
Coaches' Association.

That is the stark bottom line. Despite the personal sadness for de Bruin,
the sport from which she sprang has welcomed her disappearance. They must
now get back to the thankless task of trying to repair the damage done by
the de Bruins and others.

And of Michelle and Erik? The abiding memory will be of a press conference
in the offices of Lennon Heather Solicitors on City Quay in Dublin, a press
conference called in April 1998 to refute the charges which FINA had made
against the swimmer the previous day.

Michelle de Bruin sat beside her husband and read a lengthy statement full
of resounding denial. Somewhere amongst the brazen declaratives was a
reference to an unnamed testosterone precursor. Until the CAS hearing in
Lausanne last month that was the sole reference to the banned drug which
was made in the course of the case. The de Bruin team had included it as
damage limitation in case the lab reports had leaked to the media.

Later, when it became clear that nobody had the laboratory reports, the de
Bruin defence began furiously burying the mention of the testosterone
precursor. Yet that strange day in City Quay sticks out.

Knowing all she knew about the truth of the matter, de Bruin lied so hard
she could have lied for Ireland. She put the boot into Al and Kay Guy,
tongue-lashed her media detractors, belittled FINA, spared nobody. Beside
her sat Erik, smiling and defiantly wearing a Sydney 2000 tie. The
shamelessness took the breath away.

They had come down to the press conference via a staircase visible through
a window. The sun was shining and it caught them there, framing them
briefly: a couple of cheats but handsome ones and golden ones. For an
instant, before the tide turned on them, you wanted to believe them and for
sport to be all it is supposed to be.