SHE got up before dawn and swam. After school she'd swim some more. Then she came home, did her homework and slept, before doing it all over again.
Reporters looking for anecdotes about the childhood of Ireland's Olympic gold medallist got the same picture from neighbours, friends and family yesterday. She never wanted to be a brain surgeon or a Booker Prize winner. Swimming was all she was about.
In Michelle Smith's family home in Greenogue Drive, Rathcoole, Co Dublin, seven new video tapes are stacked neatly in the living labels blank. An eighth has "Swimming 20th July, 400m, Michelle", written as if it was just another race.
The video tapes provide just a glimpse of her career. Near the goldfish tank in the kitchen her laminated identity badge for the Seoul Olympics hangs alongside a clump of national medals.
"Around 100 things were going through my mind when I was watching her swim," said her brother, Brian (9), with a toothier version of the Smith smile.
He has not seen his big sister since her wedding to trainer, Erik de Bruin, in Holland around three weeks ago.
Michelle's two sisters, Aisling (18) and Sarah (24) said they felt as if they were swimming with her as they watched. Both trained with her when younger.
"When you see the person getting up on the Olympic starting blocks and all eyes on her ... it's your sister and she's all alone and you just want to put your arm around her," Aisling said.
She last swam with Michelle in the 50 metre outdoor swimming pool in Hardinxveld, Holland, when the family was there for Michelle's wedding.
Erik de Bruin, Michelle's husband and trainer, insists on her going to bed at about 9 p.m., they said. "She sees her night's sleep as another training session. If she doesn't have enough rest she won't be able to train properly."
Sarah trained with her sister to the same punishing schedule until she decided to concentrate on her career.
Yesterday, neighbours blinked in surprise at the media attention that the Olympic win brought to the small cul de sac. Next door, John and May Wheeler remembered seeing Brian Smith pulling into his driveway at 8 a.m. with his daughter wrapped in towels after a two hour training session.
"I always said, `That man is mad' and I told him about that a few days ago."
May Wheeler will be searching the shops for a Tricolour today, to add to the placards on the road. She agreed that Michelle's parents shared the glory with her trainer husband. "And we'll have another gold medal on Monday. She's going to come home with three at least."
Another neighbour, Ms Grainne O'Reilly, went swimming as a child with the two Smith sisters in the Tallaght pool. "They were always very good." As they grew up and Michelle went abroad they lost touch.
Comlottable in his new found stardom, Brian Smith Jnr wore an Olympics baseball cap and chatted proudly about his big sister. He had only seen one of his pals so far that day. "He was really jealous."
And while he plays golf, badminton, swims and is at a summer sports camp, Brian has no ambitions to be the second Olympian in the Smith family.
"I think I'd like to be a vet."
