Posted by spoonman Friday 18 April, 2008 04:03 PM
Is it right that Nick D'Arcy has been dumped from the Australian Olympic swimming team?
Has the Australian Olympic Committee made the right call by dumping swimmer Nick D'Arcy from the Beijing-bound swimming team, just a few days before he appears in court on serious assault charges?
D'Arcy was charged with assault occasioning serious bodily harm and common assault after allegedly king-hitting former Commonwealth Games swimmer, Simon Cowley, while he and other members of the swim team were out celebrating their Olympic selection.
He will face a Sydney court on Monday.
But today, Friday, AOC President John Coates "terminated" D'Arcy's membership of the team for bringing himself, the sport and the AOC into disrepute.
Coates was very careful in claiming that D'Arcy has the "presumption of innocence" in terms of his criminal charges, but also suggested that other claims published in the media about D'Arcy being involved in previous assaults was a factor in the AOC's decision to dump him.
Those claims are legally untested and remain hearsay.
Some critics will argue that the AOC has found D'Arcy guilty already, and possibly 'terminated' his career as well. His coach says he will give swimming away if he doesn't make it to Beijing.
Others are saying this is like a 'life sentence' - if D'Arcy was a footballer he'd get a few weeks suspension and be back in the pool.
It's an interesting comparison, especially with respect to the Sydney Swans, Barry Hall, who copped a 7 week suspension for clocking West Coast Eagle, Brent Staker, this week in an on-field incident witnessed by a large stadium crowd and even larger TV audience. Hall faced no legal sanction whatsoever.
D'Arcy's alleged incident took place in a bar full of drunken people, in the wee small hours.
So off-field (or out-of-pool), you face a 10 year prison sentence and being dumped from the Olympic team before the criminal charges are proven, but on the pitch it's a 7 week suspension and no criminal charge at all. I'll leave you to ponder the justice of that.
However it's pretty clear that this is a PR decision by the AOC. It's just not a good look for them to be seen selecting someone for the Olympic team with D'Arcy's public reputation - deserved or not.
So he's gone - days before he appears in court.
A fair call?
Over to you........
