“They’re not happy, obviously, and they’ve expressed that to Mick. He expressed his apology to them,” Taylor said.

‘Serious error of judgment’

Australian chef de mission Anna Meares earlier admonished Palfrey for she called “a conflict and a serious error of judgment”.

“With regards to Michael Palfrey and his comments of support to the Korean athlete, Kim Woo-min, this is a conflict and a serious error of judgment,” Meares said.

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

“Like a lot of people, it was a surprise and a shock. My first thoughts went to the athletes and the welfare of the athletes.”

The AOC earlier described the remarks from Palfrey, one of eight coaches working with the Australian swim team in Paris, as “deeply concerning”.

A series of late-night meetings took place in the Australian camp in the Olympic village on Wednesday evening to determine Palfrey’s involvement with the team.

‘I really hope he can win’

“There will be three or four of them in the race that think they can win it,” Palfrey said in the poolside interview. “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.”

During the interview, in which Palfrey was wearing Australian team colours, the Sunshine Coast-based coach boasted of his ties to Kim and declared, “Go Korea”.

“I really hope he can win, but ultimately I really hope he swims well,” said Palfrey, who is sharing a room with Short’s coach, Damien Jones, in the Olympic village.

In the same interview, Palfrey said: “It’s been a very collaborative approach from the coaches in Korea and myself in Australia.

“I’m very good friends with the Australian coaches and swimmers but I have really enjoyed coaching Kim as well.”

Palfrey, who stayed back at the París La Défense Arena by himself after Australia’s swimmers and coaches had left a training session, ended his six-minute interview by saying “Go Korea”.

Swimming Australia was unaware of Palfrey’s comments to South Korean journalists on pool deck when contacted by this masthead.

According to sources speaking anonymously to talk freely, the issue of Palfrey coaching Kim was first raised in the Dolphins camp earlier this year and it has now caused tension within the team’s coaching ranks on the eve of the Games.

There had been a clear directive from the governing body in March to high-performance staff that ties with international swimmers needed to be cut well before last month’s Olympic trials.

Kim is aiming to become the first South Korean swimmer to win a gold medal since 2008 when Park Tae-hwan won the men’s 400m freestyle.

“All the information that I sent through and information I get back has been very valuable for me to determine what type of training that Kim still needs to be doing,” Palfrey said. “Initially, we had meetings with the coaches and Kim every week.

“I’ve always consistently seen a steady improvement over the last six months. We’re excited to see how fast Kim can swim.”

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Palfrey, the USC Spartans head coach on the Sunshine Coast, is looking after Zac Incerti, Abbey Connor, Alex Perkins at these Games.

South Korean swimmers Kim, Hwang Sun-woo, Lee Ho-joon, Lee Yoo-yeon and Yang Jae-hoon have visited Queensland and trained under Palfrey in the past, a situation that was approved by Swimming Australia.

Short won a 400m freestyle gold medal at the 2023 world championships and Winnington picked up a silver medal behind Kim at this year’s world championships in Doha. Dean Boxall is Winnington’s coach.

Palfrey told South Korean reporters he wanted Kim, Short and Winnington all to make it onto the podium on Saturday night.

“I want to see new ground always being broken. I want to see world records being broken,” Palfrey said. “With Woo-min, what I can see that he can do in the training pool, not many swimmers can do. I’m excited to work with an athlete and that I am going, ‘Wow, this guy is something special’. We just need to give him enough time that he keeps on improve him.

“I want him to get out of the pool and [know] he’s done his best time and he’s given it 100 per cent. We want to see him swim a best time. If he swims a best time, he’ll be amongst it. He’ll be in the top few swimmers in the race.

“I think Woo-Min can definitely be amongst the medals but the hard thing for him is that those [Australian] guys have already posted fast times. He’s got to find another level. Hopefully at this meet, he can go faster.”

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