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2009/09: Should Nick D'Arcy have been banned from the 2009 World Swimming Championships?
Introduction to the media issue
Click on the picture at right to see an ABC news clip from February 2009. (video opens in a new window)
If you cannot see this clip, it will be because online video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows YouTube clips.
What they said...
'He [D'Arcy] has been hammered for the last 12 months. He's been kicked off the (Beijing) Olympic team, given a criminal conviction, now this - how long does it go on for?'
Brian Stehr, Nick D'Arcy's coach
'I guess it doesn't do any good if he [D'Arcy] goes out and swims really, really well and he breaks Australian records and Commonwealth records and wins medals for Australia, all that will mean nothing if he goes out and does this again to somebody else'
Simon Cowley, former Australian Olympic swimmer
The issue at a glance
On April 6, 2009, Australian champion butterfly swimmer, Nick D'Arcy was removed from the World Championship team bound for Rome in July after the Swimming Australia board unanimously decided to terminate his contract for breaching a by-law relating to a swimmer having a criminal conviction.
27 March 2009, a magistrate's court convicted D'Arcy of having inflicted grievous bodily harm and gave him a 14 month suspended jail sentence. The conviction was in relation to injuries D'Arcy had inflicted on former Australian Olympic swimmer, Simon Cowley, on March 30, 2008.
Cowley suffered fractures to his jaw, eye socket, hard palate, cheekbone and nose. He also had bones broken above the bridge of his nose from a single blow struck by Nick D'Arcy.
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