Australian Olympic Committee claims that Nick D’Arcy earned his qualification

Australian Olympic Committee claims that Nick D’Arcy earned his qualification

The controversial Australian swimmer, Nick D’Arcy has been facing allegations that he worked out a deal with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) to find his way to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

On the other hand, AOC has declined all allegations of fixing up a deal with D’Arcy and has claimed that he earned his qualification into the Australian team to London through a standard procedure.

D’Arcy was thrown off the Australian team to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, for assaulting a former Australian swimmer, Simon Cowley at a nightclub. Later on, Cowley sued D’Arcy to pay the compensation of damages but D’Arcy filed for bankruptcy, claiming
that he would not be able to pay him the sum of damages.

As a punishment, D’Arcy was not just withdrawn from the Beijing roster but also missed his participation at the 2009 Rome World Championships, where he was a strong contender for medal.

While commenting on the situation, President of AOC, John Coates said, “It’s not something they can offer and guarantee. The Olympic charter makes it quite clear all they can do is nominate. So they might have done a deal to say we’ll nominate him, if that’s
what Simon’s alleging. But the fact is if there was such a deal, that wasn’t one of the criteria upon which he was selected. He still had to be selected as a fit and proper person by the AOC selection committee, and still had to finish first or second (at
the selection trials).”

He stressed that D’Arcy posted a Federation International de Natation Amateur (FINA)-A Time Qualification Standard at the Australian Selection Trials and ensured his place in the national team to Olympics.

According to an article by AAP, Coates said, “As far as I’m concerned our selectors have interviewed him. They were satisfied he understood the requirements and the other requirement was that he swam the time and he did that. They’re an autonomous national
federation and they can, in these matters, do what they like as long as they do it within the law.”

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Posted by Mursil Mehmood Butt on May 8 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry