Khanswim, a famous Chinese swim blogger, is reporting on Weibo that Australian coach Michael Palfrey, fired from his job for being “un-Australian,” has been hired by the Jiangsu Province swim team in China.
Palfrey came under fire at the Olympic Games in Paris, where he was a member of the Australian coaching staff.
Prior to the start of the Games, Palfrey, who worked with Korean 400m free ace Kim Woomin in addition to the USC Spartans club, said of that event’s prospects in Paris, “I think it’s going to come down to that last 100 meters.
“We need Woomin to lift, that’s what I’ll be saying to him. He’s got to race tough.”
He also reportedly said, “Go Korea” in the interview.
At the time Aussie head coach Rohan Taylor stated Palfrey’s words were ‘very disappointing.’
“It’s extremely disappointing for a coach on our team to promote another athlete ahead of our athlete; it is not acceptable.”
Kim finished in 3rd in the race while Australians Elijah Winnington and Sam Short finished 2nd and 4th, respectively.
While Winnington said he wasn’t bothered by the comments and said that there was no animosity among the team, Palfrey was ultimately fired by Swimming Australia from his job with USC Spartans after the Olympics – a victim of the country’s highly-centralized system that gives the governing body authority over coaches of some training groups.
Three members of Palfrey’s USC Spartans team qualified for the Australian team at the Paris 2024 Olympics: Abbey Connor, Zac Incerti, and Alexandria Perkins. He also has previously coached several other stars of Australian swimming, including four-time Olympic medalist Brianna Throssell.
Jiangsu, the home province of 10-time Olympic medalist Zhang Yufei, does not have the same level of development in swimming as some of China’s other regions, but Palfrey’s hiring is being viewed as part of an effort to develop the industry in the coastal region. Other foreign coaches have been brought in to coach the team in the past – including American Ron Turner.
Palfrey’s is the latest of a long and contentious saga of Australian coaches supporting swim teams in Asian countries, including notably Denis Cotterell, who formerly coached Sun Yang.
Palfrey has had a lot of allegations raised against him, over decades, so this is probably safer for future aussie swimmers. As i doubt he’ll get a job back gere at that level again.
And to diss at a world champion with the sour grape comment that was vicious & atrocious by questioning the legitimacy of the end result by. Pan Zhan Le of China as ‘humanly impossible ‘ was very Australian alike & very much Australian spirit?
That kind of hostile & unsportsmanlike comment is the one that should come under fire & severe penalty as it brings more shame & embarrassment to Australia & the people!
I’m struggling to understand why you connect that to this.
Those comments weren’t made by this Australian coach, and that Australian coach doesn’t coach in Australia.
That was so cruel. For a moderately distasteful comment he has lot his job and now has to uproot himself to a different country and culture and leaving behind his families, his mates and everything he is used to all his life.
Half of high tech engineers in America are immigrants, those people aren’t traitor.
Top swimming coaches have freedom of choice to teach.
How about Bob (Michael Phelps’s coach)? Unamerican?
There is a difference in that Bowman was working for the French staff and Palfrey was working for the Australian staff.
But, I imagine that 90%+ readers on here agree with you, for one reason or the other – either that Bob is unAmerican or that Palfrey being called unAustralian is silly.
I for one would like to hear what you think.
About what, specifically?
Oh, about this whole Palfrey situation.
I think the row about the Korea interview was silly. Though it’s not like there weren’t other issues or marks on his scale.
I don’t love a system where Swimming Australia was able to pull him from his job for it (and if it was actually for the other issues, why did it take until ‘go Korea’ for them to pull the plug?)
Once Australia washed him out of the system, if China wants him, then that seems like a good solution for all involved parties.
Thanks for the reply!
Coincidentally, for me, the the most concerning part about these series of incidents involving Palfrey was also the systematic issues it revealed about SA. They allegedly tolerated real issues but had no problem letting him go because of, essentially, a non-issue when it hurt their image. So either, they lack the sufficient oversight to weed out the bad seeds and have to resort to made up incidents, don’t care about concerning behaviour as long as results are coming (now where have I seen that before), or they have a serious problem with managing their image. Whatever it is, it’s not a good look.
I agree with that perspective.
Damn you wave a couple of bucks in an aussies face and they will dance for you like nothing else
Jingoism is a self fullfilling prophecy who would of thought
…would have….
LOL!