Erik de Bruin, the man credited with being the brains behind Michelle Smith's rise to world prominence, is no stranger himself to drug-related controversy. A top-level career in discus-throwing ended badly for de Bruin with a positive drugs test and a four-year ban from the sport.
Spiky, idiosyncratic, yet charismatic, de Bruin was for a long time a unique figure on the Dutch sporting scene, where he enjoyed a far higher profile than he has chosen since moving to Ireland.
Erik de Bruin was born into a family for which discus throwing was a way of life.
His mother Anneke is a onetime Dutch record holder in the discipline. His father Barend, a thrower himself, trained de Bruin through his teenage years and through two Olympic Games. The couple's other child, Corrie, competed for Holland in Atlanta.
In his prime Erik de Bruin was recognised as an extraordinarily fine athlete possessing a sort of throwing circle technique which was part genetic, part learned. He was distinguished among throwers for his speed and fluency of movement in the circle.
Having competed in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 (finishing ninth on both occasions), de Bruin made several key changes to his training regime in late 1988.
He removed his father from the position of coach and travelled that winter to Point a Pitre in Guadeloupe to train in virtual seclusion. In Guadeloupe he worked with the Dutch trainer, Henk Kraaijenhof, who was later to be named at the Dubin Inquiry (into the Ben Johnson affair) as a European trainer "with a profound knowledge of drug taking."
It was reported that while working in Guadeloupe, de Bruin also met Ben Johnson and his doctor, Jamie Astaphan. De Bruin was to speak later of his attitude to the Ben Johnson affair.
"I can well imagine that Johnson took a dose of Stanozolol, it was his way to get himself out of a miserable situation.
"As far as I am concerned Johnson remains the prime athlete of the Seoul event. He performed incredibly and fantastically. I don't care what way he achieved this."
In Guadeloupe and soon afterwards, de Bruin's own performances began improving. He had endured a plateau period with regard to his personal bests but quickly moved from seventh place in the world rankings to second place by the end of 1989.
His improvements coincided with one of the first consequences of the Ben Johnson affair - the establishment of a drugs flying squad to test athletes randomly out of competition.
Once again, de Bruin was candid on the subject.
"I wonder if that is really allowed. In the Netherlands there is after all a law on privacy. I know little or nothing on legal matters but if it gets to that, I am certainly going to consult the experts.
"It is more likely that I will not be alone in seeking legal redress from a civil judge or the European court. In America it is suggested that it won't be long before there is a lawyer behind every athlete.
"If we are going in that direction it is time for me to jack it in."
By 1990, however, de Bruin was established as a top-rank thrower, taking a silver medal at the European championships in Spit and going on a year later to take another silver at the Word Championships in Tokyo.
In 1992, when expected to crown his improvements with an Olympic medal in Barcelona, de Bruin pulled out shortly before the start of the games complaining of glandular fever. Nevertheless, he travelled to Barcelona with the Dutch team and it was there he met Michelle Smith.
By the spring of 1993 de Bruin was living in Celbridge with Michelle Smith, who had quit a university course in Houston to join him. The move from his native Netherlands was costly in that his unavailability for commercial events led to his losing a key sponsor.
Having previously avoided competition on the Grand Prix circuit, de Bruin became involved in the lucrative travelling athletics circus that summer. In Cologne in August, having finished third in that evening's competition, he was selected for drug testing and failed the test.
There was some irony in the manner in which de Bruin found himself in Cologne. A TV-inspired showdown between Ben Johnson's old nemesis, Carl Lewis, and Britain's Linford Christie had forced a change in schedule at a meeting in Gateshead the previous week. The discus competition was dropped, leaving de Bruin out of pocket. He travelled to Germany desperate for cash, and straight into disaster.
His case was neither as marginal nor as uncomplicated as has generally been stated in the Irish media. His sample was discovered to contain not just an unusually high (and illegal) level of testosterone, but also an unusually high level of the pregnancy hormone Human Chorionic Gonadatropine.
However, further tests conducted in Cologne by Prof Manfred Donike revealed traces of Stanozolol in de Bruin's sample.
De Bruin has always disputed the outcome of these further tests arguing (to this paper amongst others) that the Stanozolol had been found in somebody else's sample and that the Germans, led by Donike, had it in for him.
De Bruin let it be known immediately that he would hold the Dutch athletics federation liable for any damage caused to his career as a result of the positive test. A disciplinary committee of the Dutch federation (which at the time had yet to formulate a policy on drugs in sport), acquitted de Bruin and continued to enter him for competitions until such time as the world athletics body, the IAAF, made a final determination.
However, the IAAF announced that under such circumstances it would suspend the entire Dutch federation. Under pressure, de Bruin withdrew his entry to the world championships in Stuttgart that year.
Evidence presented to the Dutch federation illustrates the difficulties involved in asking lay people to pass judgments on such cases.
Dr Douwe de Boer appeared on behalf of the university doping laboratory in Utrecht. His statement was interpreted by the Dutch panel as supporting de Bruin.
Dr de Boer's principal point of disagreement hinged on the Dutch committee's finding that the IAAF had not examined the steroid profile in de Bruin's urine sample. De Boer said subsequently that he had clearly stated that the profile was analysed and that the deviations led Manfred Donike to carry out a further check of de Bruin's B sample.
During this second check, conducted in the presence of a Dutch observer, a defective epitestoster
one/testosterone ratio was confirmed, as was an abnormally high presence of HCG. This is a pregnancy hormone which occurs at a natural level of 2.5 parts per millilitre of fluid in men. De Bruin was found with a level of 36.09.
The effect of the drug is to restore full power to the testes after a cycle of testosterone usage. Somebody who takes testosterone risks a severe hormonal imbalance. HCG serves as a mask and a stimulant to the testes, which may atrophy when not required to produce testosterone naturally.
A disturbance in the steroid profile was detected at this stage but when the Dutch observer (a Professor van Rossum, nominated for the task by de Bruin himself) departed, Donike could no longer do anything about it.
In the interests of "further scientific research" he examined the sample on advanced equipment and claimed to have found the presence of the third substance, the steroid Stanozolol. It was considered by Donike that the presence of Stanozolol accounted for de Bruin's disturbed testosterone ratio.
Legally Donike's further test could not be included in the deliberations of the Dutch federation or the IAAF. De Bruin threatened summary proceedings if the third substance (the Stanozolol) was mentioned during his hearing.
At a subsequent conference in London analyst Dr Ljungvist mentioned that another substance, a luteinizing hormone, had been found in de Bruin's system. The presence of this LH further reinforced medical suspicion.
The legal adviser to the Dutch federation, Frank Kollen, stated after de Bruin's hearing that he "was not allowed to mention the third substance (Stanozolol) under penalty of a claim for damages by de Bruin. Legally he was right but it did show de Bruin has something to hide."
De Bruin's case was passed on to the IAAF where, with his funds badly diminished, de Bruin chose to represent himself at the hearings in Monte Carlo.
It is generally considered that the IAAF's full awareness of what was termed "the mysterious third substance" led to him getting the full four-year penalty for his first offence.
De Bruin continued to blame Prof Donike for his downfall. In an attempt to show the unreliability of HCG tests he got a Prof Thijssen in Utrecht to perform random tests on five employees using the same equipment as Donike. The levels found varied greatly but the highest was less than half that found in de Bruin's own sample.
On the issue of the testosterone level de Bruin was unable to cite a previous test which would have suggested that he naturally possessed an abnormally high testosterone level.
De Bruin could give no example except to say that he had been tested in Rotterdam two months before the world championships when a level of 2.5:1 (normal is 1:1; ega limit is 6:1) was found. In Cologne he failed the test on a level of 6.85:1.
The world of Dutch sport has long been plagued by allegations of drug abuse. De Bruin's own medic, Dr Jon Ijzerman, was accused in 1991 (in Die Volkskrant) by athletics agent Raymond de Vries of prescribing hormone preparations for athletes.
In March 1994, having lived in Ireland for a year or so, De Bruin moved back to his native Hardinxved with his fiancee and protegee, Michelle Smith. Her training was intensified.
Her improvements were extraordinary and sustained. The first tangible reward came in August 1995 when she won two gold medals at the European championships in Vienna. During the competition Erik de Bruin again tangled with drug testing authorities when he acquired somebody else's accreditation to gain access to the doping control zone.