Swimmer Nick D'Arcy has said he hopes to reverse his ban from the Australian Olympic team and compete at the Beijing Games after one assault charge against him was dropped.

D'Arcy had faced two charges of assault and grievous bodily harm over a bar brawl in March which left former swimmer Simon Cowley with a broken jaw, a broken nose, a fractured eye socket, crushed cheekbone and fractured palate.

The 20-year-old athlete, who has been dropped from the Australian Olympic team, will now face one charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm on Cowley.

Appearing in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, D'Arcy was also ordered not to contact Olympic team swimmer Stephanie Rice in addition to four other unnamed witnesses of the early morning altercation.

"I'm still pretty optimistic about the outcome," he said of his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

D'Arcy said he was still training as if he would compete in China and acknowledged that his swimming career "would take a turn for the worse" if he was unable to race in Beijing.

The incident with Cowley occurred as D'Arcy was celebrating being named to the Olympic team with other members of the squad.

D'Arcy, who won the 200m butterfly in a Commonwealth record time of one minute 55.10 seconds at last month's Olympic trials, issued a public apology after the incident - which became front-page news in Australia.

He has been ordered to reappear in court on June 17.

AFP