Swimming Australia has sacked coach Michael Palfrey after his controversial public barracking for South Korea at the Olympic Games.

Palfrey was axed for breaching his employment agreement, Swimming Australia said on Friday.

“Palfrey was found to have breached his employment contract by bringing himself into disrepute and causing serious damage to his and Swimming Australia’s reputation and adversely affecting Swimming Australia’s interests,” the statement said.

SA chief executive Rob Woodhouse said Palfrey’s sacking was effective immediately.

The organisation has also begun looking for a successor for Palfrey at his swim club, USC Spartans on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, though he will retain his coaching accreditation status.

It follows controversy just days before the swimming competition started at the Paris Olympics, when Palfrey told Korean television he hoped South Korea’s Kim Woo-min would win the men’s 400-metre freestyle.

“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.”

Palfrey had previously worked with Korean swimmers but was on Australia’s pool deck in Paris as an assistant coach.

Australia had two swimmers in the 400-metre freestyle event, Elijah Winnington and Sam Short.

German Lukas Martens won the gold medal, while Winnington took the silver. Kim claimed the bronze ahead of Short in fourth place.

Palfrey’s comments angered Swimming Australia’s head coach Rohan Taylor, who considered sending Palfrey home from Paris.

He described Palfrey’s comments as “un-Australian” but decided he could remain at the Olympics given the workloads on other Dolphins coaches.

“I’m very critical of him,” Taylor said on July 26.

“I believe it was a very bad error of judgment 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.

“It comes down to coaching loads, athlete loads.

“To have somebody make a really silly error of judgment and not really think about the team at that time was disappointing for me.

“From that perspective, I was angry and I made sure that he knew that.”

At the same time, Australia’s Olympic chef de mission, Anna Meares, said Palfrey’s comments were “a conflict and a serious error of judgment”.

“He is very aware and very sorry for what has occurred,” Meares said.

Palfrey worked with Australian swimmers Zac Incerti, Abbey Connor and Alex Perkins in Paris.

He had previously mentored South Korean swimmers including Kim, who won the 400-metre freestyle at the world championships in Qatar in February.

Taylor said Australian coaches were given guidelines in March to end any association with non-Australian swimmers before the Paris Olympics.

-AAP