2008 Australian Swimming Championships
The 2008 Telstra Australian Swimming Championships were held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from 22-29 March 2008. The championships were used as the Australian trials for the 2008 Olympic Games squad.
Like all previous Australian swimming trials, the championships program mirrored the 2008 Olympic swimming program with the addition of the non-Olympic events - 50 m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly; 800 m freestyle and 1500 m freestyle.
Results
Highlighted swimmers achieved the qualification conditions to be included in the Olympic team in that respective event.Olympic team news
Due to strong performances, two additional members were added to the Australian Olympic swim team: Nick Ffrost and Felicity Galvez both finished seventh in their 200 m freestyle events. Additionally, Galvez finished third in the women's 100 m butterfly. This created controversy with freestyler Andrew Mewing, who finished 8th in the 200 m freestyle under the A qualifying time. However, Galvez was selected via a B qualifying time that ranked her 9th in the 200 m freestyle. Mewing appealed his omission to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which he lost. Adam Lucas finished second in both the 200 m and 400 m individual medley events, but was not selected because he swam a B qualifying time, rather than an A qualifying time. These were the only events on the Australian roster that remained without a second qualifier.Melissa Gorman failed to meet the qualification time for the 800 m freestyle at the championships themselves, however was included in the team to swim this event after qualifying for the 10 km marathon swimming event.
During the early hours of 30 March 2008, Nick D'Arcy was involved in a physical altercation with a fellow Australia swimmer, Simon Cowley. D'Arcy was subsequently charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.
On 18 April, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates removed D'Arcy from the 2008 Australian Olympic team, claiming that the swimmer had brought the team into disrepute. D'Arcy subsequently appealed to CAS. CAS supported the Coates' decision, but also found that it should have been voted on by the entire AOC Board. Subsequently, on 11 June 2008, the AOC Board unanimously decided to withdraw D'Arcy's membership from the team. D'Arcy appealed again, but was rejected on 16 June 2008. In March 2009, D'Arcy received a jail sentence of 14 months and 12 days, suspended on condition of good behavior.