ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250074
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Associated Press
Ireland's Michelle Smith sped away from the field for her third Olympic swimming gold medal. She still can't escape speculation that she has used banned substances.
Smith hasn't tested positive for drugs. After her victory in the 200-meter individual medley Wednesday night, U.S. women's coach Richard Quick was asked if she should be given the benefit of the doubt.
``We've given the benefit of the doubt in this sport for 30 years,'' Quick said. ``You need to look very closely into that rate of improvement.''
Smith was ranked 41st in the world in the 400 IM and wasn't in the top 50 in the 400 freestyle. She won both those events at the Summer Games. She was ranked 24th in the 200 IM.
Asked directly if she had ever used performance-enhancing drugs, Smith said, ``No. I have never used performance-enhancing drugs.''
On Friday night, the last day of the swimming competition, she plans to go for her fourth gold medal when she swims the 200 butterfly. She's ranked 33rd in that.
The Olympic swimming competition began with questions about China's swimmers, seven of whom tested positive for drugs before the Asian Games in September 1994.
``Every great performance in swimming today has a cloud around it,'' Quick said. ``That's true of every great performance in sports these days and it's a sad state of affairs.''
Smith's continued domination took the spotlight from a world-record performance by Denis Pankratov of Russia. He won the 100 butterfly in 52.27 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 52.32 he set Aug. 23, 1995. Scott Miller of Australia was second and Vladislav Kulikov of Russia finished third.
The only American medal Tuesday night came from the women's 400 medley relay team, which burst ahead on the third leg with Angel Martino swimming the butterfly. It took the gold, Australia won silver and China bronze.
Hungary dominated the 200-meter breaststroke as Norbert Rozsa and Karoly Guttler finished 1-2. Andrey Korneyev of Russia was third. Americans Kurt Grote and Eric Wunderlich finished back-to-back - in the last two spots.
The United States had been the most successful team before Wednesday night with seven golds and 17 total medals out of the 54 awarded the first four nights.
Smith has three golds herself.
Before Wednesday morning's qualifying heats, she considered passing up the 200 IM so she could rest for the 200 butterfly.
``But after I swam this morning,'' she said, ``I realized the times weren't extraordinarily fast, so I decided to give it a go.''
After posting the seventh-best qualifying time, she got off to a strong start in the final, leading after the butterfly and backstroke legs. But she faded to fourth on the 50-meter breaststroke lap before speeding away during the freestyle. She won in 2 minutes, 13.93 seconds.
Marianne Limpert of Canada took silver in 2:14.35, and Lin Li of China won the bronze medal in 2:14.74. American Allison Wagner, second halfway through the race, finished in 2:16.43.
The United States' most famous swimmer, Janet Evans, earned another shot at tying speedskater Bonnie Blair's record of five Olympic gold medals by a U.S. woman when she had the sixth best qualifying time in the 800 freestyle Wednesday morning. Brooke Bennett, of Plant City, Fla., had the fastest time.
If Evans wins the event tonight, she'll tie the record of Australia's Dawn Fraser as the only woman to win the same individual event at three consecutive Olympics.
Smith's late entry into the 400 freestyle helped bump Evans from that event. Evans finished ninth in qualifying heats for the eight-woman field that raced in Monday night's final.
The United States' appeal of the International Olympic Committee's decision to let Smith race, although she swam her qualifying time for the event one day after the deadline, was rejected early Monday.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Michelle Smith celebrates her third gold-medalby CNBperformance. color.