On December 24th, Swimming Australia announced that Michael Sage would be taking over as head coach of the University of the Sunshine Coast for the next 12 months. This comes after previous head coach Michael Palfrey was fired from his position after comments made at the Paris Olympics supporting a Korean Swimmer over an Australian.
Sage had been working as the assistant coach under Palfrey, and has presumably remained in that position since Palfrey was let go in September.
The University of the Sunshine Coast performance hub is one of eight Olympic Swimming hubs in the country. Swimming Australia created these hubs in order to help high-level athletes train with others at their level across the country to help Australia compete with “high-population” countries like China and the United States. They have one Paralympic hub, also at Sunshine Coast, which is spearheaded by Harley Connolly.
The Sunshine Coast Olympics hub has three athletes who competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Abbey Connor, Zac Incerti and Alexandria Perkins. Perkins just had an excellent showing at the 2024 Short Course World Championships, where she earned three medals, two bronze and one silver.
Perkins also broke two Oceanian records in the 50 and 100 fly.
Sage is the only coach listed with a timeline next to his name. Every other coach simply has their name, but Sage’s reads
