Australia's swimmers admit they are disappointed to miss both the opening and closing ceremonies in Glasgow but after collecting 17 gold medals and 49 overall with a day to go at the Tollcross pool they say the sacrifice is worth it.
The swimming program winds up at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday night and the Australians fly out less than 24 hours later on Wednesday to begin preparations for the upcoming Pan Pacific Championships on the Gold Coast.
They didn't march with the Australian contingent at last Wednesday night's opening ceremony at Celtic Park due to competition beginning in the Glasgow pool the next morning and will already be back home when the closing ceremony to the Games is held at Hampden Park on Sunday night.
"It's a little bit disappointing that the Australian swim team couldn't attend the opening or closing ceremony," said rookie Taylor McKeown, who announced herself as a force here by winning gold in the women's 200 metres breaststroke.
"However, we came here with a purpose and that purpose was to race fast. So if racing fast meant that we had to miss the opening and closing ceremony then so be it. We came here with a goal."
They have achieved that heading into the final day at the pool, with swimmers having won more than half of Australia's 87 medals in the first five days of competition.
The Commonwealth Games are followed closely by the Pan Pacs on August 21 to 25, casting the Australians head to head with rivals from other swimming powerhouses like the United States.
Australia's chef de mission Steve Moneghetti said the swimmers' absence from the opening and closing ceremonies was understandable.
"I think it's just the nature of sport," Moneghetti said. "They're a very important and integral part of the Australian Commonwealth Games team and we respect that.
"They've got an important competition and as you know we're athlete-based in this team and for them to perform well at the Pan Pacs then they need to go tomorrow night and I fully support that."
After the events of London 2012, there have been late nights out again for Australia's swimmers in Glasgow - but they haven't been on the town.
"Not fun nights out," said Ben Treffers, the men's 50m backstroke gold medallist. "We've had late nights at the pool. We're not getting back from the pool until about 11.30 at night after racing. Last night as my earliest night since the meet started and that was going to sleep at about 12 o'clock.
"It's a lot of late nights and the competition really drags it out of you. We've got a dry team policy and we've got to stick to that. I don't think we're allowed out at nights...it's all pretty calm and tame."
