Nick D’Arcy’s second chance to ignite the Olympic flame

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By Ian Hanson, Swimming World's Australian correspondent

BRISBANE, February 22: There will be relief and an extra thrust in Nick D'Arcy's kick at St Peters Western Pool in Brisbane this morning.

The cloud that has been hanging over his career and his Olympic dreams has finally been lifted.

The battle to get back and to do what he does best in the pool is over and the rest is now up to him.

The Australian Olympic Committee wasted no time yesterday in rubber-stamping Swimming Australia's decision to leave D'Arcy in their Shadow Squad for London.

In a statement, Australian Olympic Team's Chef de Mission Nick Green said: "The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) is pleased to note Swimming Australia Limited's (SAL) response that they have now considered the matter of their endorsement of Nick D'Arcy's membership of the Shadow Team.

SAL has also confirmed that it has responded directly to Simon Cowley.

SAL has clearly considered Nick D'Arcy's bankruptcy and advised the AOC they have not changed their endorsement of Nick D'Arcy's Shadow Team membership.

The AOC Selection Committee decided to be guided by SAL's response on this matter and determined that Nick D'Arcy will retain his membership of the Shadow Team.

Accordingly, he is eligible for selection to the Australian Olympic Team should he qualify and be nominated by SAL.

"Should Nick D'Arcy be selected, he will be subject to the ongoing obligations of an Olympic Team member as encapsulated in the Team Agreement."

It is the green light D'Arcy was convinced he already had but over the past two weeks a light that flickered back to amber as the powers at be met to consider his final fate.

It brings down the curtain on an incident between former swimmer Simon Cowley and D'Arcy after the 2008 Olympic Trials which left Cowley in hospital with multiple facial fractures and D'Arcy dropped from the Olympic team and eventually forced into bankruptcy after the courts awarded Cowley $180,000 in damages.

Australia's premier 200m butterflyer, who is currently ranked number one in the world, only has to improve slightly on his season's best to qualify for London.

His family, supporters and team mates know how hard D'Arcy has worked to set the record straight and to earn his stripes as an Olympian.

A place on the London Olympic team beckons him on March 18 at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre as it did on March 25, 2008 when he set a new Commonwealth record to win the 200m butterfly at the Olympic Trials.

But one fateful night and four painful years later is a long time for everyone to endure.

Cowley and his legal team are far from satisfied with the outcomes and you can understand the hurt and although they don"t agree they have no alternative but to accept the umpire"s decision.

But as far as the law of the land, Swimming Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee is concerned the matter is finally out of the court rooms and the board rooms and back where this story began in the pool.

Swimming is a sport that has been rocked in more ways than one by this very public, hurtful incident that has left Cowley with a pain that he will live with forever and D'Arcy with hurt of a different kind, filled regret and remorse.

Rest assured there will be a different celebration this time around from a boy who has become a man and who knows what can happen on a night out to celebrate what should have been the greatest time of his career.

He has a chance to redeem himself – an opportunity that could well see him fitted for an Olympic blazer.

But with that blazer comes responsibility and a whole lot more – something that embodies the values of the Australian Olympic team when they go into the Olympic Village on July 16.

It is called ASPIRE Attitude, Sportsmanship, Pride, Individual Responsibility, Respect and Expression and it's what the Australian Olympic team stands for.

Nick D'Arcy not only gets the chance to redeem himself as a swimmer, but also to join this exclusive Olympians club and a chance to show all those Olympians who have gone before him that he deserves to stand amongst them.

They'll be waiting for him on the pool deck as is the swimming way when the team is announced on Thursday March 22, handshakes and hugs to welcome the class of 2012.

Swimming is a sport that has carried the Olympic flag with distinction and at times controversy through some of the greatest eras of Australian sport.

Nick D'Arcy will swim like a man possessed when the gun fires to signal the start of the 200m butterfly final in Adelaide on Sunday March 18.

On paper he should make this team, even after a disrupted preparation.

If he does swim fast enough and convinces the AOC he deserves to be an Olympian then the message will be clear: "Don't blow it boy not everyone gets a second chance."

And such is the status of the Olympic family they won"t hesitate in reminding him.

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