Australian swimming coach Michael Palfrey is unlikely to be sent home from the Paris Olympics despite publicly supporting a rival athlete in a race against Australians.

Dolphins head coach Rohan Taylor branded Palfrey “unAustralian” for his comments, where he told South Korean media that he wanted swimmer Kim Woo-min – whom he also coaches – to win the 400m men’s freestyle instead of Australian pair Sam Short and Elijah Winnington.

“Promoting an athlete who is not Australian is un-Australian to be honest,” Taylor said.

He added: “I need to look at the performance of the team and make a judgement call. He gave us the information that he remembered saying it, so the general consensus from Michael was that he did say things promoting the other athlete. We confronted him with those details and he owns that and he was taken to task on it and he is very remorseful … the guidelines were pretty clear.

“It’s very disappointing to me that a coach of ours is promoting another athlete.”

Australian chef de mission Anna Meares said earlier: “This is a conflict (of interest) and a serious error of judgement.

“Any decision that we make two days out from the start of the Dolphins’ campaign needs to have the athletes in the conversation.

“Swimming Australia head coach Rohan Taylor will be having those conversations after training finishes today, in order not to disrupt the athletes. Clearly, whatever decision is made will be about the best decision of the athletes.

“Rohan and I did meet and speak with Michael and he understands the impact of his comments and his decisions. Any decision we make will be based on minimising the disruption to the athletes.

“The fact that he’s commented about the athlete winning against the Australian team, that’s the bigger issue.”

Palfrey is one of eight coaches for the Australian swim team, but works with South Korean swimmer Kim Woo-min, 22.

While talking about the 400m freestyle race, Palfrey declared he wanted Kim to win the gold ahead of Aussie athletes Sam Short and Elijah Winnington.

“I really think that last 100 to 200 metres is going to be a bit of a dogfight. It’s going to rough. The boys are going to be there,” Palfrey said while wearing Australian team colours.

“There will be three or four of them in the race that think they can win it.

“I think it’s going to come down to that last 100 metres. We need Woo-min to lift, that’s what I’ll be saying to him. He’s got to race tough.”

He also reportedly ended the interview by saying “go Korea”.

The comments have landed him in hot water with the Australian Olympic Committee.

“The AOC has been made aware of coach Mick Palfrey’s comments,” an AOC spokesperson told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier in the week.

“The remarks are deeply concerning and represent a serious error of judgement.

“The AOC is working with Swimming Australia to gain further information before making any decisions. This includes meeting with the coach and affected athletes.”

The comments come despite a clear directive from Australia’s governing body being handed down in March for coaching staff to cut ties with international athletes before the Olympic trials last month to avoid conflicts of interest.

Short enters the Olympics having won the 400m race at the 2023 world championships while Winnington finished second in the 2024 world championships behind Kim Woo-min.

The final will be the first swimming medal event at the Paris Olympics and while Palfrey may be cheering on Kim Woo-min, Australia will be firmly behind Short and Winnington.

Heats for the 400m freestyle event will get underway on Saturday before the final takes place on Sunday morning from 4:42am (AEST).

Both Winnington and Short will return to the pool on Monday evening when they take part in the 800m freestyle event.

The final of that event is set to take place on Wednesday morning from 5:03am (AEST).