Erik de Bruin, husband-coach of the Olympic triple gold medallist, has said he expects yesterday's ruling to be overturned within weeks by CAS, the international sports arbitration body.
Speaking at his home in Co Kilkenny, he said that in view of the hysteria which had been generated in recent weeks and months, neither he nor his wife had been surprised by the judgment.
"I predicted some weeks ago that this would be the decision handed down by FINA and that it would in turn, be overruled by CAS," he said.
" I expect our appeal to be heard by CAS in Lausanne within two or three weeks and that it will be successful".
CAS is the body which adjudicates on appeals against rulings delivered by the international sporting federations and which has, on occasion, found in favour of the appellant.
In the inquests which followed yesterday's announcement that Michelle de Bruin had been banned for four years, the role of the American media in orchestrating the campaign against the Irish swimmer was again being highlighted by some commentators.
It was American newsmen who first questioned her on her attitude to performance-enhancing drugs, less than an hour after she had won the second of her Olympic titles in Atlanta, in the final of the 400 metres freestyle championship.
By their own imposing standards it had not been a particularly good start to the championships for American swimmers. In Janet Evans, however, they believed they had a credible contender for the 400 m freestyle title.
Evans, one of the matriarchal personalities of American swimming, had set a world record for the event of 4 minutes 03.85 seconds - almost three-and-a-half seconds faster than de Bruin's subsequent winning figures - when winning the title for the first time at Seoul in 1988.
As it transpired, she was nowhere near that form in Atlanta. After struggling in the preliminaries, she failed to make the "A" final.
In the climate of disbelief which ensued, the quest for scapegoats was wide ranging and inevitably, perhaps, it centred on de Bruin's late development.
In a series of questions which took scant account of the inexplicable rates of progression attained by some American sports persons in the past, the US media pilloried her time and again focused on the improvement she had made in the two years leading to the centennial Olympics.
De Bruin, wholly unruffled, answered each questioner politely and pertinently. But in spite of her protestations that hers had been a gradual scale of improvement and that each of her winning times had been well outside existing world records, she failed to convert the unconvertable.