Michelle de Bruin is to appeal the four-year ban from competitive swimming imposed on her yesterday by the sport's international governing body, FINA.
FINA said Ireland's triple Olympic swimming gold medallist was guilty of manipulating a urine sample taken during a doping test.
Mr Erik de Bruin, her husband and coach, said he expected FINA's ruling to be overturned within weeks by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, the international sports arbitration body.
"I expect our appeal to be heard by CAS in Lausanne within two or three weeks and that it will be successful," he said.
Ms de Bruin's lawyer is to hold a press conference in Dublin this morning.
The announcement of the FINA ban, which could end Ms de Bruin's career, came in a one-page news release from the Lausanne office of FINA, which said she is being suspended for four years with immediate effect from August 6th.
The ban, which is bound to cast a pall over Ms de Bruin's exploits in the Olympic Games in Atlanta, may have more immediate ramifications for her achievements in the European Championships in Seville last August. FINA rules state that all competition results in the six months before a positive test must be annulled.
As a tampering charge is regarded as equivalent to a positive test, Ms de Bruin is likely to be stripped of the two gold and two silver medals that she won at the European Championships. Her 1996 Olympic medals would not be affected.
Ms de Bruin had been tested at her home in Kellsgrange House, Co Kilkenny, on January 10th last by two testers acting for the Swedish testing agency, International Doping Tests and Management.
The FINA statement was explicit in documenting its satisfaction that the chain of control which the sample underwent had not been breached at any stage after the sample was taken. Ms de Bruin had always denied any interference with her test and said any manipulation must have taken place after it was out of her sight.
A potentially lethal dose of whiskey found in a first urine specimen was also detected in the back-up sample when it was tested in Barcelona on May 21st. The FINA Doping Commission, composed of a panel of three lawyers, one from Germany, one from Algeria, the other an American, had heard Ms de Bruin's case in detail almost two weeks ago at a hearing in Lausanne. The swimmer's solicitor, Mr Peter Lennon, submitted almost five hours of evidence in defence of his client and stated afterwards that he felt the hearing had been "fair" and "cordial".
The Irish Amateur Swimming Association said yesterday it "fully accepts the ruling of FINA" and it was "a source of major concern and disappointment to everyone in the Irish swimming community".
The IASA's national swimming coach, Mr Ger Doyle, said: "I am shocked. I didn't expect her to get a ban. I thought she would receive some leniency."
The Irish international swimmer, Donncha Redmond, said the IASA should remove her swimming records from the time she began making dramatic improvements. The records in many events were "far ahead of the norm" and otherwise would not be broken for 10 or 15 years.
The Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, said the ban was "a personal tragedy" for the swimmer and her family. He said he was "saddened and disappointed" and hoped that the Olympic champion could establish her innocence.
Bord na Gaeilge said yesterday it will continue to support Ms de Bruin and will not review this position until the outcome of any appeal. A spokeswoman for the Irish language promotion body, which is funded by taxpayers, said an offer of a new sponsorship contract to Ms de Bruin three months ago still stood.