MANCHESTER, United Kingdom (AFP) — Australian swimmer Kenrick Monk, who caused outrage when he and teammate Nick D’Arcy were pictured posing with shotguns, slammed his Olympics punishment as ‘brutal’ yesterday.

The two men were allowed to keep their places in the Australian team for the London Games, but will be sent home once their events have been completed.

“We caught a bit of a harsh punishment but basically, social media was banned for us and we were getting sent home from the Olympics,” said Monk.

“But it happens, it was one of those things they want to punish us with, it’s quite brutal, but you know we have to accept that and move on from it.”

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) banned the duo from using social media for the duration of the Olympics after they posted pictures on Facebook of themselves with high-powered weapons in a US gun shop.

The pair’s coach Michael Bohl, who also coaches triple Beijing gold medallist Stephanie Rice, said the incident was a warning to others in the squad that they have to be sensible when they use social media.