After harvesting a record number of Olympic medals in the pool in Beijing, Australia's swimmers and coaches need to set the bar higher to stay among the world's leading swimming nations, according to national head coach Alan Thompson.
Thompson said the swim team was extremely proud and encouraged by its achievements in Beijing which included 20 medals - a record for a single Olympic Games - won by 33 of the 42 swimmers in the team.
As well, 17 of Australia's 19 national team coaches will return home with at least one medallist in their squad.
And, according to Thompson, a plan put in place more than three years ago to make relays a focus had paid handsome dividends.
"It's the first time any Australian team has achieved a medal in every relay and it's the first time that an Australian relay team has backed-up, winning at two Olympics in a row - that was our women's medley yesterday," he said.
"So there's a lot of great things that have come out of this."
"We've now set the bar higher for ourselves so we have to work even harder over the next four years to work towards our goal of being the No.1 swimming team in the world."
Thompson said Australia would continue to strive for excellence across the board, unlike 'niche' programs run by many European teams which focus on one particular stroke or event, or on men or women.
He dismissed the notion that our men are not pulling their weight, despite the fact that for the first time since the Montreal Games in 1976, no Australian male in Beijing was able to win gold.
"There's a gap if you measure it by gold medals, but not if you measure it by other medals," Thompson
"When we lost people like Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim, Geoff Huegill and Matt Welsh, we had a gap in our men's team which is gradually starting to close."
"The young ladies are certainly the best swimming team in the world and I think we've had the best balanced team we've had for a number of years."
"I'm hoping that one day we don't talk about the men's team and the women's team, we just talk about the Australian swimming team."