PARIS: Swimming coach Michael Palfrey has been given a reprieve by the Australian team for Paris 2024, with chef de mission Anna Meares on Friday morning (AEST) confirming he would be staying with the Dolphins after calls had been made for him to be expelled.
Palfrey has been under siege since making comments on Korean TV suggesting he wanted world champion Kim Woo-min to upstage his superstar Aussie duo of Sam Short and Elijah Winnington.
In a press conference on Thursday, Dolphins head coach Rohan Taylor had made it clear that Palfrey’s removal from the team was on the table, revealing he would ask Short and Winnington how they were feeling about Palfrey’s presence following the stunning interview.
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Yet, despite being caught in the crossfire, Winnington and seemingly Short, stood steadfastly by their coach, with the 400m freestyle stars backing Palfrey to stay with the team.
“I couldn’t care less,” Winnington told Nine after a training session on Thursday.
“Mick’s come and apologised, I don’t think he meant what he said, he’s a great guy, a great coach, obviously Woo-min trains with him but yeah, he’s come up to me and he knows that he didn’t mean what he said and at the end of the day it’s just a comment and I’m just here to race as best as I can.”
The AOC sent out a statement on Friday morning confirming that a decision had been reached, with Taylor recommending to Meares 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,” Meares said.
The statement said the Dolphins senior management team had spoken with athletes, including those coached by Palfrey (Winnington, Short and breaststroker Sam Williamson), the athlete leadership group and coaches before reaching the decision.
Taylor said athlete welfare across the entire 41-member pool team was at the forefront of the decision for Palfrey to stay on in Paris.
“We took the time to consider the two options – for Mick Palfrey to stay … and for Michael Palfrey to be sent home,” Taylor said.
“After extended conversations, with athletes, the athlete leadership group, and coaching staff we have made the decision for Michael to stay. It is not one we have taken lightly and I stress this is an ongoing discussion for when we return home.”
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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,” he added.
“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.”
In that same press conference, Taylor was asked if coaches had specifically been required to cut off contact with athletes from other nations in order to take their place as part of the Australian coaching set-up in Paris.
He conceded that was a “grey” area, given the long history of Australian coaches juggling their local pupils with international competitors.
“That’s something we’ll be looking into when we get back home,” he said.
“There were guidelines sent out after Doha (the world championships held in February this year) and the guidelines were pretty clear that we didn’t want any new international athletes to be coming into (Australia) and accessing our performance support programs. And obviously the Koreans were part of that group who were looking to spend more time in Australia.
“If there were already existing athletes in place there and there were already agreements in place we would honour that, but any new additional athletes wanting to spend time, we said that we were against that.
“In short, what I learnt in the last 24 hours, and I only just found this out, was that it was an email conversation around advising around training programs.
“There was no physical contact (between Palfrey and Kim) it was just basically giving advice around training.
“Now whether that comes into being a breach, that’s what we’ve got to work through and our integrity unit will handle that when we get home and look into that very carefully.”
Palfrey is likely to learn his fate before Saturday’s opening ceremony but whether he stays or is sent home, Tuesday’s men’s 400m freestyle final has now become one of the meet’s most explosive rivalry clashes.