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Controversial swimmer Nick D’Arcy will tell a meeting of Olympic officials next week why they should not sack him from the Australian team for the Beijing Games.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled overnight that the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) must decide whether D’Arcy should retain his place on the team for Beijing.
An AOC spokesman said the executive board was likely to meet next week to decide the matter and D’Arcy’s lawyer Jack Leitner said the 20-year-old Queenslander had accepted an invitation to state his case at the meeting.
“In light of the recent rulings of the CAS … we now look forward to fully putting Nick’s case to the AOC executive in what are now clearer and different circumstances to those which were before the AOC when Nick’s membership of the (Australian Olympic) team was previously sought to be terminated on April 18,” Leitner said in a statement.
AOC president John Coates, who originally sacked D’Arcy from the team following an incident in a Sydney bar that left former swimmer Simon Cowley with serious facial injuries, has disqualified himself from the vote and will not participate.
The CAS ruled Coates’ original decision should be set aside because he did not have the sole power to sack D’Arcy and should have referred the matter to the AOC as a whole.
In Coates’ absence AOC vice-president Ron Harvey would chair the meeting of the other 14 executive board members deciding D’Arcy’s future, the AOC spokesman said.
Leitner said the outcome was encouraging after a protracted couple of weeks.
“We are hopeful that the issue of Nick’s continuing membership of the team can be finalised at the forthcoming meeting of the AOC executive and that the 14 members of the AOC executive, who are to determine Nick’s future, remain open to persuasion as to the merits of his case for inclusion,” he said.
While the CAS found D’Arcy had brought himself into disrepute in the March 30 incident in Sydney’s Loft Bar shortly after he won selection at the swimming trials, it said that did not provide for an automatic sacking.
The AOC does have the right to sack D’Arcy but must consider if it is fair and reasonable, and give weight to the likely consequences for D’Arcy if he is sacked.
Given those conditions, the AOC’s lawyers have written to D’Arcy’s legal team requesting he respond with 48 hours to three questions: Why the AOC should not sack him? What the consequences for D’Arcy will be if he is sacked? And what special conditions would D’Arcy accept if he were to stay on the team.
His responses, along with the CAS decisions, the police fact sheet and D’Arcy’s bail conditions for criminal charges stemming from the March 30 incident will be presented to the AOC executive meeting.
If he stays on the team D’Arcy’s bail conditions may need to be changed because he is currently not allowed to approach or contact Beijing-bound swimming teammates Stephanie Rice, Eamon Sullivan, Kenrick Monk and Andrew Lauterstein.
Leitner said that while D’Arcy had any slim hope of staying on the Australian team, he would continue to train as if he was going to Beijing, but had needed the occasional pep talk.
“We are doing everything we possibly can to get him on that team,” he said.
“He is still training, he is still a member of the team of course, and he looks forward to joining his teammates hopefully in the very near future.
“There are times where we have had to give him a motivational talk, when he has tried to ascertain where he is up to, is there a light at the end of the tunnel?
“But for someone who is 20 years of age he’s got determination, strength and will well beyond his years.”
If the AOC executive votes D’Arcy off the team the swimmer has the right to appeal to the CAS again.
D’Arcy is also due back in court on June 17 facing criminal charges carrying a potential 10-year jail term.
MEMBERS OF THE AOC EXECUTIVE WHO WILL VOTE ON NICK D’ARCY’S OLYMPIC FUTURE
Vice Presidents – Ron Harvey, Peter Montgomery
IOC Members – Kevan Gosper, Phil Coles
Secretary General – Craig Phillips
Members – Lynne Bates, Helen Brownlee, Ian Chesterman, Douglas Donoghue, Nicholas Green, Michael Wenden, Russell Withers, Tom King, Victoria Roberts
*note President John Coates has stood aside from the decision
Critical dates in the Nick D’Arcy affair:
March 29 – Nick D’Arcy named in Australian Olympic team for Beijing after winning the 200m butterfly at the selection trials in Sydney.
March 30 – D’Arcy involved in a Sydney bar incident in the early hours of the morning which leaves former swimmer Simon Cowley with serious facial injuries.
March 31 – D’Arcy charged by NSW police over the Cowley incident.
April 2 – D’Arcy issues statement regretting his involvement in the incident.
April 18 – Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates dumps D’Arcy from the Beijing Olympic team for bringing himself, his sport and the Olympic team into disrepute.
– D’Arcy lodges an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
April 21 – D’Arcy appears in court on assault charges stemming from the Cowley incident.
May 15 – CAS hearing takes place in Sydney where both D’Arcy and Coates give evidence.
May 28 – CAS rules D’Arcy brought himself into disrepute but that Coates did not have the sole discretion to dump him from the Olympic team.
June 3 – CAS rules AOC must vote on D’Arcy’s fate. D’Arcy accepts AOC invitation to speak to the executive board meeting that will make the decision.
June 17 – D’Arcy due back in court over criminal charges.