The sun shone on Michelle de Bruin's homecoming yesterday, a marked contrast to the post-Atlanta celebrations when she could have swum past the reviewing stand. She arrived in Dublin Airport wearing her by-now traditional collection of gold and silver jewellery. Some 200 people and four dogs crammed into the airport's north terminal for the official ceremony. The dogs were from the Irish Guide Dog Society, of which Michelle is a patron, and they were nicely co-ordinated with her latest medal collection. Two of them were golden labradors, while - since the breed doesn't come in silver - the other two were black.
But it was the later, private meeting between the swimmer and the Minister for Sport at a reception organised by her sponsors, TNT, near the airport on which most attention was focused.
Dr McDaid turned up with a bunch of yellow roses - not the shrinking violets we had hoped for - and impressively explained his earlier reluctance to attend in terms of a heartfelt wish not to steal the glory from successful athletes.
The press cameras flashed furiously throughout the brief encounter. For years photographers used their skills to keep politicians out of the triumphant homecoming pictures. Now they were doing their best to get Dr McDaid in.
The Minister's modesty was clearly infectious, to judge by the behaviour of yesterday's official welcoming committee. Both the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the chairman of Fingal County Council shared the podium at the airport, but neither felt like making a speech. If this strange behaviour continues, we may have to introduce mandatory drug testing for politicians.
So it was left to the heroine of Seville to do most of the talking. But she had hardly begun when, describing her pride at being a double European champion, she burst into tears.
The audience applauded, and they applauded even louder when a woman shouted: "Michelle, we love you, don't mind the begrudgers."
The swimmer recovered her composure to thank her various sponsors, effortlessly changing strokes as she slipped into Irish to acknowledge the support of Bord na Gaeilge. Then, addressed by a Dutch journalist, she completed an individual medley of European languages with a greeting in his mother tongue.
Finally, commenting that her husband had been "standing at the back of press conferences all week", she invited Erik de Bruin to the front, where he stood behind her for another intense burst of photography.
A poster in the crowd suggested "Michelle Smith for President" and the assembled journalists took their cue from the audience's reaction, with the most awkward question posed concerning the correct way to pronounce her new surname.
Clearly, some people were still finding it difficult to accept the Rathcoole woman's transformation from ordinary Michelle Smith to exotic Michelle de Bruin.
