Australian swimmer Nick D'Arcy and teammate Kenrick Monk posing with guns in a picture on D'Arcy's Facebook page
SYDNEY, Australia ● Australia is in uproar after London-bound swimmers Nick D’Arcy and Kenrick Monk posted photos of each other posing with weapons in the United States, claims the Sydney Morning Herald.
Both the swimmers are now being investigated by Swimming Australia.
The images appear to have been taken in a gun shop while both athletes were in California for a training camp with fellow Olympic team members Stephanie Rice, Bronte Barratt and Meagen Nay.
The swimmers, who were traveling home to Australia last night, were yesterday ordered under a clause in their Swimming Australia contracts to take down the photos from social media sites Facebook and Twitter and quickly warned similar posts would not be accepted when they join the Australian Olympic team in London.
‘‘These postings today are foolish and clearly inappropriate for members of the 2012 Australian Olympic Team,’’ chef de mission Nick Green said. ‘‘There is no such thing as privacy on social media. Anything that is put up will be in the public domain.
‘‘This incident serves as a warning to all athletes on the 2012 Team about the dangers of social media. We say again to our athletes, do not put anything up on social media that you would not share with your mother or your grandmother.’’
Both D’Arcy and Monk have known controversy before.
D’Arcy was convicted of assaulting former swimmer Simon Cowley in 2008 and was subsequently kicked off the Australian team named for the 2008 Olympics and then banned from the world championships the following year.
He filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay Cowley damages and also met with Green and the AOC selection committee in late September last year, to assure them he would meet the high behavioural standards expected from athletes leading into London.
It was an informal meeting with D’Arcy and other athletes, to make sure they all clearly understood there is a level of behavioural expectation, and they were told that if that level was not met, the AOC would look on that “very, very seriously”.
In February this year, three weeks out from Olympic trials, he was given the all clear by both Swimming Australia and the AOC that he would be free to compete in London if he fulfilled the selection criteria at trials, and that his decision to go into bankruptcy would not have an impact on that selection.
Monk ran into trouble last year after claiming he broke his elbow after being hit by a car in a hit-and-run incident before admitting he actually fell off his skateboard.
He surprised many by qualifying for his second Olympics so soon after recovering from the injury.