Australian swimming coach Michael Palfrey has been sacked from his role following an incident at the Paris Olympics which was labelled at the time as “un-Australian” by Dolphins’ head coach Rohan Taylor.
Get more sports news like this delivered straight to your inbox via TDA’s sport newsletter. Sign up here.
Why Michael Palfrey was sacked
Palfrey worked with South Korean athlete Kim Woo-min, one of the favourites for the men’s 400m freestyle, before the Olympics.
In an interview with Korean reporters at the Games Palfrey said “Go Korea” about the men’s 400m freestyle event.
Palfrey commented even though he was coaching for Australia who had two athletes, Sam Short and Elijah Winnington, in the race. Ultimately, German Lukas Märtens won gold with Winnington in second and Woo-min in third.
What they said:
Swimming Australia said it had fired Palfrey “due to a breach of his employment agreement.
“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.”
Future Practice
In Paris, Taylor also suggested Swimming Australia would not allow its coaches to assist in the development of athletes from other nations. He said: “We are a leading nation and we do have a lot of really strong IP in coaching and resources and we are investing in that and we want to protect it.”
