Australian cycling is back where it belongs, with new sprint ace Matt Richardson a key part of the generation looking to Los Angeles and Brisbane.
After Tokyo, where Logan Martin's gold was the only big highlight, Australia has enjoyed its most successful Olympics in the sport since the six golds outlier at the Athens Games.
Australia won three gold in Paris and added to the cycling medal haul on the last day of the Olympics when Matt Richardson won silver and Matt Glaetzer claimed bronze behind Dutch master Harrie Lavreysen.
Georgia Baker was also looking at a podium finish in the omnium, before her legs betrayed her in the last race and she faded to fifth.
AusCycling performance boss Jesse Korf noted that there was a much more even spread of medals in track cycling, with the men's team pursuit winning gold for the first time since Athens.
"Now it seems like we've been able to rejoin that group of superpowers in cycling, which is incredibly encouraging and exciting," Korf said.
"We just have to make sure we step through. As much we have to celebrate all the amazing things that happened here, we keep stoic, stay critical and keep building.
In the frenetic keirin final - Richardson said it was the fastest in history - he tried to unleash his trademark surge on the final bend.
But after suffering a rare loss to the Australian in their semi-final, Lavreysen kept him wide and held on for the win.
That makes Lavreysen the first rider since British legend Sir Chris Hoy to sweep the men's sprint events at an Olympics - the keirin, sprint and team sprint.
Behind them, the Australian track team's beloved four-time Olympian Matt Glaetzer avoided a three-rider pile-up to win bronze - his first individual medal after so many fourth places.
Richardson and Glaetzer celebrated together as if they had won, while paying full respect to Lavreysen's domination.
"For a moment down the back straight I thought I might get him, but he was smart with his lines that he was taking into the last corner to keep me wide," Richardson said.
"It's just crazy - keirins, anything can happen. It's a bit of a lottery and Matty came out winning (bronze).
"The only thing better than being on the podium is being on the podium with a teammate."
Richardson also won silver in the sprint behind Lavreysen, as well as bronze with Glaetzer and Leigh Hoffmann in the team sprint, and he was the closest rival to Lavreysen at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome outside Paris.
Richardson called Lavreysen a "phenomenal athlete".
After breaking his run of near-misses at the Olympics with team sprint bronze, winning his first individual medal was a rich bonus for Glaetzer.
"I've had a lot of bad luck in my career and jeez, it's good to finish on some good luck," he said.
"I'm just grateful I stayed upright on that final corner. They were bumping me and then I saw them all absolutely hit the deck.
"All of a sudden I saw I was crossing the line for bronze and I couldn't believe it. I felt like a bit of a Steve Bradbury, but oh gosh, it's amazing."
Baker was holding back tears after her omnium near-miss.
"I'm pretty upset. I proud of how I rode ... I gave it my all. But I'm still disappointed because my goal was get on the podium," she said.
American Jennifer Valente successfully defended her Olympic omnium crown ahead of Poland's Daria Pikulik and New Zealand's Ally Wollaston.
Another New Zealander, Ellesse Andrews, backed up from her keirin win to take out the sprint gold medal ahead of Germany's Lea Friedrich and Emma Finucane, of Great Britain.
That meant the Netherlands topped the track cycling golds with three, while the US and New Zealand won two apiece.
Australia were then among a spread of nations who won one apiece - a vast difference to Tokyo, when the British and Dutch dominated at the velodrome.
