Swimming greats have different views over D’Arcy
April 1, 2008
Australian swim greats Grant Hackett and Keiren Perkins have different oppinions about what should happen to Nick D’Arcy following his nightclub incident in the early hours of Sunday morning. Grant Hackett is the current Australian swim team captain. Perkins is a two time 1500m Olympic champion and multiple world record holder.
Hackett was talking about the incident on the Sunrise program yesterday morning. He said it would be a huge penalty if he was also dumped from the Olympic swim team for Beijing. Hackett was on air before D’Arcy had been arrested and charged with assaulting Simon Cowley.
Keiren Perkins speaking on ABC radio this morning said if D’Arcy is found guilty of assault he should be dropped from the Olympic team. He also did say that if it was up to him personally he would allow D’Arcy to go to the Olympics in Beijing. The interviewer asked Perkins what he thought about how footballers are quite often involved in bar brawls and might only miss a game of footy and isn’t a bit harsh to lose his spot on the Olympic team for this incident.
Perkins does not think that it is appropriate for swimmers to be allowed to behave like footballers and the high standards swimmers have lived up to in the past need to be maintained.
Another Australian Olympic great Dawn Fraser also thinks D’Arcy should be allowed to keep his place in the Australian Olympic swimming team. It his her opinion that he should be allowed his chance to compete and then deal with the matter once he returns to Australia.
The situation with D’Arcy has created a few headaches for the Australian Olympic committee. It could get into a messy legal affair if D’Arcy is banned and then appeals to the court of arbitration. April 21 is when D’Arcy is due to appear in court. It is possible that he could plead not guilty and then have the court proceedings put off until after the Olympics.
Nick D’Arcy appeared on the Nine Network tonight and said “It’s pretty bad and I’m sorry about how it turned out but…that all I’ve got to say.” D’Arcy also said that he is assisting police with the investigation.
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