Australia’s performance in the Paris pool may be even more brilliant than it first appeared after swimming legend Dawn Fraser made the stunning claim up to “half” of the squad may have battled Covid during the Games.

The Dolphins finished with seven gold medals — just one less than the US — among 18 overall, with Australia’s female swimmers accounting for six of the victories.

The legendary Fraser made the stunning claims during an exclusive interview with Matty Johns on the Matty & The Missile podcast, revealing even superstar Kaylee McKeown — who won five medals including two gold — was among those affected.

Breaststroker Zac Stubblety-Cook revealed he contracted Covid before winning silver while freestyler Lani Pallister and rising star Ella Ramsay were others who fell ill and had to withdraw from events.

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“It (the squad’s performance) has been absolutely fantastic, you know, because half of our swimmers got COVID and it wasn’t known to the media and a lot of them swam well because they had it and some didn’t,” Fraser told Johns.

“Lani didn’t swim very well in the 800 because she was just getting over it.

“But we did very, very well in the pool because as I said, they got COVID the first couple of days, they were in the village and we had to put seven swimmers in hotels to keep them away from it.

“It’s one of those things that it’s easy to catch and it’s much truer in the village, it certainly goes around.”

Fraser singled out praise for McKeown who may have also been ill despite a herculean effort that included winning the 200m backstroke final, then backing up in the semis of the 200m individual medley, an event in which she eventually won bronze.

“You have got to take your hat off to Kaylee McKeown because she got her medal, she didn’t walk around the pool, she had to walk straight out, go down to the marshaling area and swim the next race,” Fraser said.

“And she was very lucky if she made the whole event because I think that she did have a touch of COVID.”

Australian swimming great James Magnussen said Fraser’s claims made the performance of the nation’s swimmers even more remarkable.

“It (swimming) is pure physicality. It’s so dependent on your lungs, which we know COVID affects,” Magnussen said.

“These girls are machines …. These girls are a different breed.”