The Australian Olympic Committee has handed down punishment to Olympic swimmers Nick D’Arcy and Kenrick Monk, following the outrage over this picture posted on Monk’s facebook page last week. The pair will be allowed to compete, but will be sent home from London on August 4th, immediately following the conclusion of their events. August 4th is the final day of the swimming competition, but many athletes will typically stay around afterward to enjoy the pomp and the festivities of the Games.
By violating the AOC’s social media guidelines, the pair will also be banned from using social media for an extended period in the leadup to, and after, the games – from July 16th through August 15th.
According to a release by the Australian Olympic Committee, Chief Nick Green told the two in a letter that “given this incident and our previous discussions concerning your conduct, I now have concerns regarding your lack of judgment.” He continued with “As a member of the 2012 Australian Olympic Team, and as I have reminded you on previous occasions, it is an honour and a privilege to be a member of an Australian Olympic Team. Australian Olympians are required to meet very high standards of conduct and we cannot risk the reputation of the Team through non-compliance with the Team Membership Agreement.”
Committee members who were involved in the punishment-deciding acknowledged that the two athletes’ position as repeat offenders was a major role in the severity of the punishment.
Swimming Australia will be conducting its own investigation, which could potentially result in further punishment. They released the following statement after the AOC revealed their decision:
Swimming Australia supports the Australian Olympic Committee’s decision to discipline Nick D’Arcy and Kenrick Monk over their poor judgement and inappropriate use of social media this week.
Swimming Australia CEO Kevin Neil said the decision by the AOC is a timely reminder for all team members of their responsibilities as representatives of the Australian Swim Team.
“This was a case of extremely poor judgement and through our own Social Media Guidelines, we acted quickly to ask the athletes to remove the images from their social media accounts,” said Neil.
“We will be speaking with the athletes involved further about this matter, and reminding them about their responsibilities as representatives of the Australian Swim Team.”
“This is also a timely reminder to all members of the Australian Swim Team that it is an honour to swim for your country and with it comes clear responsibilities in and out of the pool.”
Swimming Australia still has an internal process to follow in relation to the matter, and the next step in that process will be a meeting with the athletes involved on Monday.
Swimming Australia will be making no further comment on the matter until its own internal processes are complete.
Wow. Bitchy op-eds are one thing, but I’m really surprised this warranted an actual punishment. Seems awfully Draconian.
In second thought…meh. It’s a fairly innocuous punishment, essentially just cutting short a vacation. Seems a good way for the Australian O.C. to appease those clamoring for action (if said people exist) while not really doing anything too harsh.
I think in both cases, this should have been the punishment all along. If D’Arcy owes a guy a huge legal settlement, he shouldn’t be hanging out in London. If Monk gets off the hook for filing a false police report and sending the cops a manhunt for attempted murder, then he shouldn’t be running around in a foreign country on the Australians’ dime either.
That’s a bit judgmental of you Braden.
Chris, that’s probably why he started off the comment with “I think…”. Merely stating what he thinks, which is naturally going to represent his judgement of the situation…
Well done ! such behavior is not really what’s called ” smart ” .
What behavior? Their prior transgressions weren’t good, but posing for that picture is literally harmless.