SYDNEY, Australia - An Olympic swimmer charged with assaulting a man in a nightclub incident after the Australian trials was kicked off the Beijing-bound team Friday for bringing the sport into disrepute.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said 20-year-old butterfly swimmer Nick D'Arcy would not be allowed to remain on the team. He won the 200-meter butterfly at the trials held in Sydney at the end of March.
D'Arcy had been the subject of an AOC investigation after being involved in an altercation with former Commonwealth swim champion Simon Cowley, which left Cowley with multiple facial fractures. D'Arcy is facing charges of assault and causing grievous bodily harm from the March 30 incident in a Sydney bar.
"This is obviously a difficult decision to make but the question is whether his conduct has brought, or is likely to bring himself, the sport of swimming, the team and the AOC into disrepute and censure," Coates said Friday.
"It's clear that being charged with criminal offenses of such a serious nature is sufficient to bring Nicholas and the sport of swimming into disrepute and is likely to bring the team and the AOC into disrepute if he continues to be a member of the team."
Coates said D'Arcy has the option of appealing against his exclusion from the Olympic team to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Coates said he was expressing no view on the outcome of upcoming criminal proceedings against D'Arcy, expect to say that the swimmer was entitled to the presumption of innocence and that the charges must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
