The Sport Player: Nick D'Arcy

Nicholas James D'Arcy (born 23 July 1987, in Brisbane, Australia) is a national-record holding butterfly swimmer from Australia. He was removed from Australia's 2008 Olympic team due to a violent altercation that happened shortly after the Australian Olympic Trials. He was also removed from Australia's team to the 2009 World Championships after being convicted for the same incident. At the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, D'Arcy competed in the 200 m butterfly, where he came 14th in the heats in a time of 1 min 57.88 s, scraping into the semifinals by 0.09 s. He improved his time to 1 min 57.15 s to finish 12th, missing the final by 0.68 s. The 2008 Australian Swimming Championships held in March in Sydney were used to select the Australian swimming team for the Beijing Olympics. D'Arcy broke the Australian record for the 200 m butterfly in the semifinals, before setting a new Commonwealth record of 1 m 55.10 s in the final. The victory earned D'Arcy selection for the Olympics and was the tenth fastest time ever recorded in the event. The 2009 Australian Swimming Championships held in March in Sydney, which are used to select the Australian swimming team for the 2009 World Championships, D'Arcy broke his own Australian Record in the 200 m butterfly in the final, winning in 1:54.46. In March 2010, he qualified for Australia's teams to the 2010 Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships, and has been approved to travel to and compete at these events. He came second at the Pan Pacific Championships behind Michael Phelps. D'Arcy was expected to take home the gold medal in the 200 m butterfly at the Commonwealth Games because his fastest time for the year was more than two seconds faster than any oft he other entrants, but failed to qualify for the final after a slow heat.

2009 | Nick D'Arcy | Australian Record | 1.54.46 | 200m Butterfly

On 31 March 2008, D'Arcy was charged with assault after an alleged brawl with former Commonwealth Games triple gold medalist Simon Cowley on the night of his naming in the Australian Olympic team. He was later charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm. On 3 April 2008, a second athlete, Tim Peach, came forward claiming he was also assaulted by D'Arcy. D'Arcy was granted conditional bail to appear in court on 21 April 2008. He plead guilty to one charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm. On April 18, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) dropped D'Arcy from its 2008 Olympic team, claiming that the swimmer had brought the team into disrepute. D'Arcy subsequently appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which found that D'Arcy had brought himself into disrepute and therefore broken his contract with the AOC regarding behaviour by Olympic team members. However, CAS also found that the decision to expel D'Arcy should not have been made solely by the President of the AOC John Coates, but instead by the entire AOC Board. The AOC Board subsequently unanimously decided to withdraw D'Arcy's membership from the team on 11 June 2008. D'Arcy appealed the AOC Board's decision to CAS, which rejected this appeal on 16 June 2008. In March 2009, D'Arcy received a jail sentence of 14 months and 12 days. This was suspended on condition of good behavior. On 6 April 2009, he was dropped from Australia's team to the 2009 World Championships by Swimming Australia. Former Australian swimming captain Grant Hackett supported D'Arcy's return to swimming once his ban was served. D'Arcy underwent an out-of-competition test in March and was informed of his positive result in April, he tested positive for the banned substance formoterol. He is currently fighting to stave off a doping ban after paperwork allowing him to take an asthma medication "went missing".