The Australian Olympic Committee has voted to kick swimmer Nick D'Arcy off the team for Beijing for his role in a nightclub brawl that left a former competitor with serious facial injuries.
The AOC executive board yesterday unanimously backed the original decision of its president, John Coates, that D'Arcy had brought the sport into disrepute.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport had ordered the AOC to reopen the case because it had not followed correct procedures when banning him from this year's Olympics, but it reached the same decision.
"The effect that Nicholas D'Arcy's conduct had on his reputation, as found by the president and confirmed by the CAS, was the basis for the decision by the AOC Executive," AOC vice president Ron Harvey said in a statement.
"To terminate the membership of an athlete on the Australian Olympic Team is a very serious matter. After careful consideration we have reached a decision based on that responsibility."
D'Arcy was thrown off the team in April after a brawl at a nightclub in March left former Commonwealth Games champion Simon Cowley with a broken jaw and nose, fractured eye socket, crushed cheekbone and fractured palate.
D'Arcy, a university student, had been celebrating his inclusion in the team in the 100 and 200 metres butterfly for Beijing when a fight broke out. He was charged by police and is due to face a Sydney court later this month.
D'Arcy, who had argued he was a fit and proper person to represent Australia at Beijing, said the saga was a long way from being finished.
"I'm very disappointed by today's decision (but) I can't say it was a surprising decision," he told reporters. "However I am lodging an appeal. It's already been put in the works in preparation for today's decision. "That will be my final port of call. I'll continue to train until every option has been exhausted."
Darcy's legal team also argued that the AOC had been inconsistent in its ruling because it had allowed an Australian boxer to compete at the 2004 Olympics while he was on bail facing serious assault charges.
(Shanghai Daily June 12, 2008)