Swimming Australia sack coach for Korea barracking

Swimming Australia have sacked coach Michael Palfrey in the wake of his public barracking for South Korea at the Olympic Games.

Palfrey has been axed for breaching his employment agreement, Swimming Australia said in a statement on Friday.

“Palfrey was found to have breached his employment contract by bringing himself into disrepute and causing serious damage to his and Swimming Australia’s reputation and adversely affecting Swimming Australia’s interests,” the statement said.

SA chief executive Rob Woodhouse said Palfrey’s sacking took effect immediately.

The organisation has begun a process to find a successor for Palfrey at his swim club, USC Spartans on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, though he will retain his coaching accreditation status.

Just days before the swimming competition started at the Paris Olympics, Palfrey told Korean television he hoped South Korea’s Kim Woo-min would win the men’s 400m freestyle.

“I really hope he can win but ultimately I really hope he swims well,” Palfrey told Korean media, before ending the interview by saying: “Go Korea.”

Palfrey had previously worked with Korean swimmers but was on Australia’s pool deck in Paris as an assistant coach.

Australia had two swimmers in the 400m freestyle event, Elijah Winnington and Sam Short.

The gold medal was won by German Lukas Martens. Winnington took the silver medal with Kim claiming the bronze ahead of Short in fourth place.

Palfrey’s comments angered Swimming Australia’s head coach Rohan Taylor, who considered sending Palfrey home from Paris.

Taylor described Palfrey’s comments as “un-Australian” but decided to keep him at the Olympics given the workloads on other Dolphins coaches.

“I’m very critical of him,” Taylor said on July 26.

“I believe it was a very bad error of judgment and the consequences for that will be coming in the future when we get back home.

“But for the nine days of our (swimming) competition, my job is to make a call around the wellbeing and the performance environment and that’s what I’ve done.

“And it comes down to coaching loads, athlete loads.

“To have somebody make a really silly error of judgment and not really think about the team at that time was disappointing for me.

“And so from that perspective, I was angry and I made sure that he knew that.”

Australia’s Olympic chef de mission Anna Meares, also on July 26, said Palfrey’s comments were “a conflict and a serious error of judgment”.

“He is very aware and very sorry for what has occurred,” Meares said.

Palfrey worked with Australian swimmers Zac Incerti, Abbey Connor and Alex Perkins in Paris.

He had previously mentored South Korean swimmers including Kim, who won 400m freestyle at the world championships in Qatar in February.

Taylor said Australian coaches were given “guidelines” in March to end any association with non-Australian swimmers before the Paris Olympics.