Triple Olympic gold medallist Michelle de Bruin yesterday criticised Irish swimming's governing body, Swim Ireland, for trying to erase her Irish records from the books.
De Bruin successfully issued legal proceedings against Swim Ireland, who, in the face of a probable legal battle, decided to leave all of her records intact.
Speaking on RTE radio yesterday de Bruin said: "I thought it was atrociously vindictive of them (Swim Ireland) given that LEN (the European governing body) and FINA (the international governing body) said that they had no right to take away my medals."
Both LEN and FINA issued statements saying all European and Olympic medals would remain with the swimmer despite the fact that her four-year ban from the sport, for tampering with a urine sample in 1998, was upheld by the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier this year.
"Remember these Irish records go back to 1984 when I was 14. I put in a lot of dedication and work hard work to get them. I would not give them up that easily," said de Bruin. "They mean a lot to me, otherwise I wouldn't have put in so much time and effort." De Bruin currently hold 26 individual Irish senior records.
When asked whether there was a cloud hanging over the times, de Bruin replied: "That is not for me to say. . . I am very proud of them and I will fight for every record."
De Bruin dismissed claims that her records could not be broken, pointing to the fact that Trojan swimmer Chantal Gibney broke the 50 metres freestyle record in Belfast in March 1998.
