An Australian Olympic swim coach who wants a star South Korean athlete to defeat the Dolphins will remain at the Paris Games despite widespread anger at his comments.

Swimming Australia head coach Rohan Taylor says coach Michael Palfrey will face “consequences” for his inflammatory comments when the Paris Games finish.

But Taylor said given the workloads on eight Australian swim coaches under his guidance at the Olympics, Palfrey would remain in Paris.

Palfrey told Korean television he hoped South Korea’s Kim Woo-min would win the men’s 400m freestyle in Paris.

ABC Sport is live blogging every day of the Paris Olympics

Australia has two genuine gold-medal contenders, Sam Short and Elijah Winnington, in the event to be contested on Saturday’s opening day of the swimming competition in Paris.

“I really hope he can win but ultimately I really hope he swims well,” Palfrey told Korean media, before ending the interview by saying “go Korea”.

Taylor described the comments as “un-Australian” but decided Palfrey would stay in Paris.

“I came to the decision that the best situation for the team is for Michael Palfrey to stay with the team for the next nine days,” Taylor told reporters on Thursday night in Paris.

“We just had an online team meeting where Michael apologised profusely for his mistake.

“I’m very critical of him.

“I believe it was a very bad error of judgement and the consequences for that will be coming in the future when we get back home.

“But for the nine days of our (swimming) competition, my job is to make a call around the wellbeing and the performance environment and that’s what I’ve done.

“And it comes down to coaching loads, athlete loads.”

Australia’s Olympic chef de mission Anna Meares earlier on Thursday said Palfrey’s comments were “a conflict and a serious error of judgement”.

“He is very aware and very sorry for what has occurred,” Meares told reporters, adding the Australian Olympic Committee would support Taylor’s decision.