Australian swimming coach sacked for encouraging South Korean over his swimmers

Australian swimming coach sacked for encouraging South Korean over his swimmers
Australian
      swimming
      coach
      sacked
      for
      encouraging
      South
      Korean
      over
      his
      swimmers
-

Not patriotic enough – Michael Palfrey paid dearly for his support of South Korean Kim Woo-min, who eventually won the bronze medal in the 400m

It’s discouraging to speak out frankly. The Australian Swimming Federation fired one of its coaches on Friday, more than a month after the Paris Olympics ended. Michael Palfrey had caused a stir in his country by openly supporting South Korea’s Kim Woo-min, whom he once coached, against his two Australian rivals in the 400-metre freestyle final.

“I really hope he wins, but more importantly I really hope he swims well,” Palfrey, wearing the Australian team jersey, told South Korean reporters. “Go Korea!” he even said.

While describing the comments as “anti-Australian”, head coach Rohan Taylor stopped short of immediately removing Palfrey, saying it would have destabilised the team.

The coach has “discredited himself” according to his federation

On Friday, Swimming Australia finally announced that it had “dismissed Michael Pal(…) - 20minutes

Also read:
Paralympic Games 2024: What are these funny fishing rods used in para swimming for “tapping”?
2024 Paralympic Games: Portal brothers secure historic double in Paris
2024 Olympics: “He’s going to send me a gift”, the little girl snubbed by Léon Marchand was entitled to a face time with the star

-

PREV beIN Sports responds firmly to fans’ anger and will not change its programming
NEXT We saw the funny long jump cheetahs