Michelle Smith De Bruin has said that she is saddened by the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport to uphold her ban from swimming. However, in a statement she again protests her innocence. Ms. de Bruin says that she has never used any banned substance during the course of her career. She also accuses certain sections of the media of vilifying her and asks for privacy while she decides on her future.
The Statement reads:
I am deeply saddened by the decision of the court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and in particular their decision to prefer circumstantial evidence concerning the manipulation charge as distinct from direct evidence given by me at the hearing of my Appeal. I today stand and accused of having used banned substances over the course of my career and that was the motive found by the Court as to why I would have attempted to manipulate the sample in question.
I reaffirm what I have always told you that I have never used any banned substances in the course of my career, nor have I ever been charged by FINA of using any banned substance in the course of my career. I am proud of what I have achieved and assure those who have supported me and believe in me, that my victories in Atlanta and Seville are not hollow and have been achieved without the use of any illegal performance enhancing substance.
Both I and my husband have been publicly attacked and vilified by various sections of the media and public since I won my first gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics and that makes me deeply unhappy. I still believe that I have been targeted by FINA since my Olympic success and believe that I am, even today, correct in that view, having regard to the disclosures made for the first time by the Irish Times of the background to the Out of Competition Doping Control missions that were carried out on me in 1997 and 1998.
I will forever cherish my moments of victory and hope that those who still believe in me will also cherish their memories of those times. I know that, in the dark days ahead, there will be moments when it will seem all too much to have to deal with. However, I am strong in the knowledge that I have not committed the offence with which I was charged or any other offence and to date no-one has proven on a factual basis how the whiskey entered the sample which was tested by the laboratory in Barcelona.
I would ask you in this difficult time to allow to allow me some privacy to try and come to grips with this decision and to make the necessary plans for my future.