Swimming Australia has sacked Olympic Games coach Michael Palfrey for the “un-Australian” comments in Paris that made headlines around the world.
Palfrey told South Korean media that he hoped Kim Woo-min – who he was also working with – would beat Australia’s Elijah Winnington and Sam Short in the 400m freestyle.
The Australian Olympic Committee allowed Palfrey to continue coaching in Paris after consultation with athletes but SA has confirmed that the relationship is now over.
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“Swimming Australia has terminated Michael Palfrey’s employment due to a breach of his employment agreement,” the governing body said 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.
“CEO Rob Woodhouse confirmed Palfrey’s employment has ended effective immediately and the process to find a successor for Palfrey at USC Spartans has begun.
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“Palfrey retains his coach accreditation status. Swimming Australia will be making no further comment.”
During the Olympics, Dolphins coach Rohan Taylor recommended that Palfrey stay on.
“I support Rohan Taylor and his team and the decision they have taken in the interests of the swimming team. It is a decision based on high performance and wellbeing,” Australia’s chef de mission Anna Meares said in July.
That determination was made less than 12 hours after Taylor had described Palfrey’s TV interview as “un-Australian” and Meares had labelled it “a serious error in judgement.”
“For a coach on our team to promote another athlete ahead of our athletes is not acceptable and I’ve spoken to Michael about that,” Taylor said.
“My priority right now is the performance of the team and the performance of the athletes.
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“And I’m going to meet with the athletes he coaches, he has three athletes on the team plus another athlete he’s looking after.
“And I need to make a judgement call on that, so I’m meeting with them after this press conference, they had training this morning, I didn’t want to disrupt them.
“I’ll sit down with them and see how they’re feeling and we’ve got a delicate balance of performance and requirements on the team, so we’ll look at that.”
