I missed this story when it was originally published, but 21 year old Australian swimmer Nick D’Arcy just received a suspended sentence for an assault charge.
D’Arcy was involved in a brawl on March 31, 2008 with former swimmer Simon Cowley, who had won three gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. That night, D’Arcy was celebrating his place on the Australian Olympic swimming team at a Sydney nightclub. Cowley is said to have slapped the inebriated D’Arcy then a brawl broke out.
Cowley may have started it, but he got the worst of it – he ended up with a fractured jaw, eye socket, palate, cheek, and nose. He has had to have five metal plates fitted to his head after what reports said was just one punch thrown by D’Arcy.
D’Arcy pleaded guilty to one charge of reckless inflicting grievous bodily harm for hitting Cowley. The judge, Magistrate John Favretto, sentenced D’Arcy to 14 months in jail, but then suspended that for good behavior. Favretto said that he saw “nothing to suggest that he [D’Arcy] presents a continuing danger to the community.”
While the suspended sentence is good new for D’Arcy, his swimming career has suffered terribly due to the attack. After the brawl, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) dropped him from the team, so he missed the Beijing Olympics. The AOC has said that D’Arcy would be eligible for the 2012 Olympic Games in London if he qualified and was able to meet their standards of conduct, i.e., not getting drunk and punching people in the face.
He did qualify last week to compete in the World Championships in Rome this July, but Swimming Australia will have to hold a hearing and rule as to whether D’Arcy can join the team or not.
While in court, D’Arcy apologized again to Cowley, against his lawyer’s request.
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