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Rogge backs axing of D'Arcy
24/04/2008 07:43 - (SA)
Sydney - International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said on Thursday he supported the Australian Olympic Committee's expulsion of Nick D'Arcy from this year's Beijing Games.
D'Arcy, 20, has appealed the AOC's decision to the Confederation of Arbitration for Sport.
He was thrown off the team last week for an alleged assault on former Commonwealth swimming champion Simon Cowley, which left him with a broken jaw, a broken nose and a fractured eye socket.
D'Arcy faces a charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm following his alleged bar fight.
Rogge said he backed AOC president John Coates' decision to remove D'Arcy from the team for bringing the Olympic team and the sport of swimming into disrepute.
"My colleague John Coates is really committed to the athletes," Rogge said in an interview with ESPN televised on Thursday.
"If the Australian Olympic Committee has taken that decision, I will of course support that.
"They have not taken it lightly because they know what it means to deny an athlete from an Olympic selection and definitely they must have considered that the grounds were strong enough to take that decision."
D'Arcy, who won the 200m butterfly in a Commonwealth record time of one minute 55.10 seconds at last month's Olympic trials, has issued a public apology after the incident, which became front-page news in Australia.
He has been ordered to reappear in court on June 17.
- AFP
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