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How could it be anything but the premium score for Australia’s women after a phenomenal performance in Paris led by four generational swimmers in Titmus, McKeown, McKeon and O’Callaghan, along with several other elite athletes.

In the Matty and the Missile in Paris podcast prior to the meet at the La Defense Arena beginning, the dual-world champion Magnussen highlighted the pressure on Titmus as she prepared for the “race of the century” in the 400m against American legend Katie Ledecky and Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh. If Titmus emerged triumphant, he predicted it would set the tone for the rest of the Dolphins.

So it proved. With a phenomenal defence of the title she won in Tokyo, Titmus joined Dawn Fraser as the only Australian women to win successive freestyle golds at the Olympics, later matched by McKeown, when dictating terms to defeat McIntosh and Ledecky.

The subsequent deeds of Ledecky, who held Titmus at bay in a thrilling 800m final and clinched her fourth successive 1500m gold, and McIntosh, who became the first Canadian to win three gold medals in a single Olympics with successes in the 200m butterfly and 200m and 400m individual medleys, only enhanced the effort of the Australian. All three medallists leave Paris having added to their legend.

“She was up against Katie Ledecky, who is the GOAT (greatest of all time) of women’s swimming … and Summer McIntosh, the 17-year-old who won three gold medals at this Olympics and is potentially the future GOAT of the sport,” Magnussen said.

“Ariarne superseded both of them in that event and I was just so happy for her, to back up the Tokyo Olympics. We saw her on all the TV ads and the billboards before we came over. There was a lot of pressure on her and boy, did she deliver.”

The incredible depth in the race prompted Magnussen, a dual-Olympian, to elevate Titmus to first among Australian Dolphins to have swim since 2000 in front of Ian Thorpe, McKeown, Grant Hackett and McKeon.

“I’m so impressed with what she’s done at this Olympic Games and therefore she takes my top spot,” he said.

Titmus, who was superb when anchoring the 4x200m freestyle team to gold, settled for silvers behind Ledecky in the 800m and her compatriot O’Callaghan in the 200m freestyle in another absolute thriller of a final.

McKeon, 30, is now Australia’s most decorated Olympian with 14 medals dating back to her first appearance in Rio de Janeiro, with her deeds in Tokyo when claiming four gold medals and seven overall astonishing.

The gold medal she claimed as part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team in Paris was her sixth overall, taking her beyond Ian Thorpe.

He was delighted for McKeon, saying he “couldn’t think of anyone better to have that title”, but Thorpe also added a caution.

“It may be a title that only (stands) for now with the other swimmers that we have coming along and what they might be able to do,” Thorpe said.

Titmus is within reach and so, too, is McKeown.

She now has five gold medals to her name and nine medals overall after another successful Olympics in which she completed the 100m and 200m backstroke golden double while adding bronze in the 200m medley and 4×100-metre medley.

While Titmus is ranked atop the pile for Magnussen this century, he believes McKeown deserves the MVP rating for this Olympics.

“I’ve tossed and turned over this one. I went Ariarne and then I thought ‘No, it’s Molly’, and then I ended up on Kaylee McKeown,” Magnussen said.

“She’s gone the double, double in the 100 and 200, backstroke in Tokyo and again in Paris. It’s never been done before. (She is) box office.

“She stayed so composed. She was in a dogfight in both races and she actually beat the current world record holder in that 100m backstroke, so I’ve singled out her 100m backstroke as my gold medal performance for the entire meet.”

Then there is O’Callaghan, who produced the swim of a lifetime to edge Titmus in the 200m freestyle but did not quite back up in the 100m when the favourite for the gold. She is only 20 yet already has five gold medals, with four coming from relays in 2021 and this year.

A shout out, too, to Meg Harris, who clinched the only other individual medal for Australia’s women with a silver medal in the 50m on the final day of the Olympics meet.

The quiet achiever of the Dolphins, she swam a personal best 23.97sec to grab a spot on the podium to go with her gold medals in the 4x100m relays in Tokyo and Paris and a bronze in the 4x200m relay in Japan as well.

THE MALE MARVELS

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With “Le Roi Leon” Marchand magnificent for France in clinching four individual gold medals and Zhanle Pan producing arguably the most incredible swim in history in the 100m, it was not only the deeds of the nation’s women which overshadowed the Australian men.

But to say the men underperformed as a whole be harsh given the deeds of the two swimmers above – Pan also produced an “eye-popping” anchor leg in the medley on Monday – and the quality of the golden generation of female swimmers representing the Dolphins.

McEvoy leaves Paris on a high having finally confirmed his golden potential in his fourth Olympics. But Chalmers, Stubblety-Cook and Winnington were superb as well, while Sam Short competed admirably given how ill he was a couple of months ago at the national trials.

The “professor” McEvoy was the revelation, with his stunning success in the 50m freestyle coming just two years after he had effectively walked away from swimming following a testing Tokyo in which he failed to progress to the semi-finals in either the 50m or 100m free.

The 30-year-old stumbled on a winning formula away from the pool, combining callisthenics and gym work with rock climbing while drastically cutting the amount of time he spends swimming, and arrived in Paris primed to produce the swim of a lifetime.

Eight years after clinching gold in the 100m freestyle in a final also featuring McEvoy, Chalmers was magnificent in the event in Paris. His anchor leg in the 4x100m freestyle was superb and the difference between Australia clinching a silver medal instead of missing the podium, and he backed that up with a mighty swim in the 100m final, where only the mind-blowing swim of Pan denied him.

It was not quite golden redemption for Winnington, but after failing in the final of the 400m in Tokyo after qualifying with the fastest time, he produced an almighty swim this time around when second behind the German Maertens.

Stubblety-Cook was an Olympic gold medallist in the 200m breaststroke in Tokyo and a former world-record holder and produced another stirring swim in Paris in the event when denied only by the history-making deeds of Marchand, who became the first swimmer ever to complete the 200m butterfly and breaststroke double, a feat managed within a couple of hours on a remarkable night for France.

Magnussen said the Toulouse-born, Arizona-based Marchand was clearly the swimmer of the Olympics.

“Leon Marchand. Four individual gold medals, two on one night. I haven’t seen anything like it since Michael Phelps. I probably won’t see anything like it again for some time to come,” he said.

“I can only imagine what his profile is going to be over the next four years in Paris. Everywhere we walk in Paris, we see him on billboards, in pubs. People were in the streets cheering for him during his races.

“He was under so much pressure and expectation, and like I said, I haven’t seen an athlete deliver like that says Michael Phelps.”

AN EYE TO LOS ANGELES

As the Australian team was snaring a couple of silver medals on the final night of the event, the Queens of the pool are likely to take some time away from swimming before regrouping with a view to the future.

Titmus and McKeown are 23 and O’Callaghan is only 20, so if they can retain their hunger and remain injury-free, all are more than capable of continuing on to Los Angeles in four years and even Brisbane in 2032 if they can keep their pace as well.

After all, that is the goal of McEvoy, who aged 30 believes his revolutionary approach to sprinting might enable him to remain competitive enough to swim in the Queensland Games in eight years time.

Chalmers, 26, can look to the elder statesman as an example of what is possible, so too swimmers including Winnington.

Magnussen has identified bolstering the strength of Australia’s medley teams as one area in need of improvement and said the Aussies also needed to focus on the minute details including their wall touches, turns and starts.

But he believes Swimming Australia has to find a way to ensure young male stars are not lured away by domestic sports like the AFL and NRL.

“We’re losing a lot of talent in age group swimming to professional sports like the AFL and NRL,” he said.

“When you get big, strapping young Aussie swimmers, who are often athletically talented, they can transfer to a number of other sports. At the moment, we’re losing those swimmers to other sports.”

But there is much to be excited about among the younger generation of Australian swimmers who cut their teeth in Paris, headed by 18-year-old Olivia Wunsch, a member of the gold-medal winning 4×100 metre freestyle relay team.

And one thing is certain — at pools across the country today, aspiring swimmers will be dreaming of matching the deeds of Titmus and O’Callaghan and the golden Macs in the Olympics to come.