PARIS -- Nine nights. Seven gold medals. One monumental scare for the Americans they'd be dethroned as swimming's powerhouse nation.
After an impressive world championships in Fukuoka last year, Australia carried enormous expectation into the Olympic Games in Paris. For the most part, the Dolphins delivered, netting the nation's third-best result in the pool on the world's grandest sporting stage to finish just one gold medal behind the United States.
The tone for the successful meet was set from opening night when Ariarne Titmus defended her 400m freestyle title in dominant fashion, not an hour before the quartet of Mollie O'Callaghan, Emma McKeon, Shayna Jack, and Meg Harris won gold in the women's 100m freestyle relay. They were on the board, firing, and the pressure valve released ... if only just a touch.
Here's what we'll remember from an enthralling nine nights at La Defense Arena in Paris.
Who was Australia's most impressive swimmer?
As brilliant as Mollie O'Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus were, it's almost impossible to go past Kaylee McKeown. The 23-year-old achieved two remarkable feats in Paris. She became the first woman in history to defend 100m and 200m Olympic backstroke titles. And in doing so, became the first Australian to tally four individual Olympic gold medals.
American Regan Smith had entered the Games in blistering form, having just broken McKeown's world record mark in the 100m. But in both races it was the same old story, the Australian powering over the top and touching the wall first to cement her legacy as one of the all-time great backstrokers.
READ: McKeown, McEvoy put USA on notice
McKeown also took bronze in the 200m individual medley, despite racing out in lane one. An hour later, she was back in the pool leading Australia off with a 100m backstroke leg in the mixed medley relay. The Australians would finish third, behind the United States and China, taking McKeown's Paris medal tally to two gold and two bronze. On the final night of action, she added a silver medal for her swim in the women's 100m medley relay.
Who was Australia's most disappointing swimmer?
Sam Short entered these Games off the back of a dominant world championships in which he won gold in the 400m, silver in the 800m, and bronze in the 1,500m. Paris was set to be a breakout Games for the 20-year-old Queenslander, unfortunately, nothing of the sort eventuated.
His Olympic debut got off to a rocky start on night one when he was upstaged in the 400m by compatriot Elijah Winnington, who swam to an excellent silver behind Germany's Lukas Martens. Short took fourth in the race but appeared to be battling throughout. Later in the meet, he sprung a major surprise when he failed to qualify for either the 800m or 1,500m final. In both of his qualification swims he posted times miles off his personal bests and what he knows he's capable of producing.
Short had endured a rather lacklustre Australian trials, but that was put down to an illness he picked up just days before the event. Even taking that into consideration, nobody would have expected him to leave Paris without a medal.
What was the best Australian race of the meet?
Maybe there's a touch of bias, but watching two Australians fighting each other for Olympic gold was pretty special.
The women's 200m freestyle final was expected to be one of the races of the Games, and it well and truly delivered. Titmus, the reigning champion, led on the third lap and looked to be closing in on her own historic Olympic double-double, but O'Callaghan delivered a truly magical final 75m to swim over the top of her highly credential compatriot.
READ: From watching to winning: O'Callaghan tops Titmus
"I can't explain it. There are no words to explain," said O'Callaghan after winning her first individual Olympic gold medal and guiding Australia to its first swimming one-two at the Games in 20 years. "I'm swimming for the country ... this medal is for my support team, my coach, my family. It's not just for me. There was a whole village behind me getting me to this point, so I'm very thankful to have them."
What was the biggest Australian shock of the meet?
The speed and finishing O'Callaghan demonstrated to beat Titmus in the aforementioned 200m race made her the odds on favourite to double up in the 100m freestyle two nights later. It's an event she won at the world championships in both 2022 and 2023, and had looked dominant in at the Australian trials in June.
But in Paris, this race did not go to plan. O'Callaghan never recovered from a tardy getaway off the blocks and swam to a somewhat disappointing fourth place, behind eventual winner Sarah Sjostrom and podium finishers Torri Huske and Siobhan Haughey. Very few would have had the star Australian sprinter missing the podium in that one, even O'Callaghan herself.
"I expected a lot more," she said after the race. "But at the end of the day you've got to suck it up and wait another four years."
What was the best Australian moment in the pool?
It's difficult to top the redemption story of Cam McEvoy, who didn't expect to be in Paris, much less walk away with a gold medal hanging around his neck.
Eight years ago in Rio he started as a red-hot favourite to win the men's 100m freestyle final, yet somehow wound up finishing seventh. In Paris, as a 30-year-old at his fourth Olympics, McEvoy was also viewed as the one to beat, this time in the 50m splash and dash. The pressure was on to make amends for that heartache, and he delivered a powerful swim to capture the sweetest of gold medals, his first at Olympic level.
READ: McEvoy avenges Rio heartbreak in 20 seconds
"It's hard to explain the two-year process that it took to get here and the route I took," he said after his triumph. "The entire two year journey, it wasn't just a transformation as an athlete. As a human being I grew a lot in terms of this process."