By winning the 400m Freestyle, and her second of four medals at the Atlanta games, she not only temporarily propelled herself from the pool to the stratosphere but also saw the drug accusations that would linger for far longer than the celebrations enter the public eye for the first time.

Not that Ireland was listening at the time however. Smith had already put the country in Italia '90 mood after her gold in the 400m Individual Medley the previous day . . . a victory which saw her become not only the first Irish woman to win an Olympic medal but also the first Irish swimmer . . . and her unnatural display here only heightened the fervour. Having started the race by settling nicely into the slipstream of Dutch leader Carla Louise Guerts, Smith burst into gear at 200m, leaving favourites Dagmar Hase of Germany and Claudia Poll of Costa Rica far behind with a time of 4mins 7.5secs.

However, while the emphatic nature of Smith's victory enhanced her popularity in Ireland, over at Atlanta it only raised eyebrows. Most notably those of the host nation and their ousted swimming favourite Janet Evans, as whispered rumours prior to the games now became loud accusations.

Ironically, it was an event Smith almost wasn't allowed enter. It was only after she recorded the best time in the 400m Freestyle two weeks before the Olympics at the Pine Crest Swim Camp that it was decided she would compete in the race. However, that decision came two days after the application deadline and it took heavy lobbying to the IOC for FINA to alter the line-up.

With Evans having finished ninth in the heats . . . and one outside the final placings . . . the Americans predictably tried to use that information to have Smith thrown out before the event, leaving one space vacant.

Having failed down that route, Evans tried another tactic.

Immediately after the race Evans openly questioned how a 26-year-old such had Smith had made such dramatic improvements at that age, claiming the win came "kind out of nowhere". Asked whether it was suspected Smith had used drugs to aid her development, Evans said: "I have heard that question posed in the last few weeks about this particular swimmer. If you are asking me if the accusations are out there, I would say yes they aref it is a topic of conversation on the pool deck."

While Evans accusations were never proven, within two years Smith was banned by Fina after a drug sample was found to have been tampered with. Smith got to keep her medals, but the memories have always been tainted.