Poor Mr. D’Arcy. The father of swimmer Nick D’Arcy is in Perth with his son to see his daughter compete in a surfing competition. Problem is his son broke the jaw and skull of a fellow swimmer six hours after qualifying for the Australian Olympic team. His six hours may prove to be the shortest Olympic career in history. There is a 99.9% chance he will be barred from the team. (see today’s “The Australian.” 

So there’s Dad. Off to Perth with his son. And there’s the media scrum. Poor Mr D’Arcy. 

Sports stars falling from grace is a fairly common event in Australia. Andrew Denton didn’t let Wayne Carey walk in the park on  ”Enough Rope” on Monday night. Our super-paid-aggressive-competitive-superstars are adored when they channel their testosterone on the field. But when they punch up a girlfriend (Wayne) or a team mate (Nick) and we abhor them. But back to Mr. D’Arcy.

We’ve all had our embarrassing or painful family moments. And you can easily recall the anger or shame or hurt of that time. Now imagine that same upset but with a media scrum outside your door at all time. Checking into the Sydney airport. Arriving at the Perth airport. Going to the hotel. Eating dinner. Watching your daughter surf. And all that time cameras are focused on you and your son hoping you’ll bear some emotion. Melting down in the limelight has to be one of the modern world’s most bizarre phenomenon (The Britney Effect is modern parlance). We eat up the photos of starlets with bad bikini bodies - but dive underwater if friends try to photograph us at the beach. We read the details of an Olympic hopeful’s shattered future - but can’t imagine having a camera in our face in similar circumstances.  It’s not easy being in the spotlight - especially in times of strife. But we fuel the cameramen and journalists with our insatiable interest in the subjects. 

Poor Mr D’Arcy - now, can we get an update on his son?