The Australian Dolphins Swim Team is in Bendigo preparing for next week's FINA World Short Course Championships in Melbourne.
But they're also using the time to make their claim on regional Victoria and familiarise themselves with the area ahead of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Dolphins head coach Rohan Taylor is expecting high performance from his team next week and said this week was all about fine-tuning.
"So taper stage, and right now it's just about converting the work that they've been doing," he said.
"It's really just about getting in and doing the fast stuff when they need to just to sharpen them up and get ready."
With a 36-strong squad that includes eight Olympic gold medallists, the team took the two 50-metre pools at Gurri Wanyarra Wellbeing Centre this morning to fine-tune ahead of next week's short course championships.
"Anytime you take people, athletes in particular, into environments that they're not familiar with, there's always a good benefit because they have to revisit why they're doing what they're doing," Taylor said.
"They enjoy the experience of being in a different environment, but they also have to really focus on why they're here and what they're doing."
The team will receive their Dolphin pins and caps tonight at a private function in Bendigo and spend some of the next few days also in the gym.
Jenna Strauch, one of the Dolphins' athlete leaders, is from Bendigo and said training with the squad in her hometown was special.
She said it was also good training for the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in three years' time in regional Victoria.
"We've got a pretty jam-packed team heading into a home world champs which, mind you, we haven't had an international meet in Australia for 15 years," she said.
"This a pretty monumental moment for us. It's been a very long time, so we're all excited to sort of be at a home crowd."
Taylor wants to see more staging camps in regional Victoria in the lead-up to the games and allow the Dolphins to play their part in encouraging people to get in the pool and swim.
"There'll be a lot of a lot of people coming out to the area, and in and around Victoria and I think, is a fantastic initiative," he said.
Strauch is joined in Bendigo by a Dolphins' squad that includes eight Olympic gold medal winners — Emma McKeon, Kaylee McKeown, Mack Horton, Kyle Chalmers, Madi Wilson, Meg Harris, Chelsea Hodges and Mollie O'Callaghan.
"That's the most exciting part, that the community can come down and see us in open training sessions," Strauch said.
"We haven't had open training sessions for a very long time.
"It's a great opportunity for people to get involved and see what we do and be a part of the journey."
Matthew Temple won silver at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games earlier this year and hails from Melbourne.
Temple said he was also looking forward to swimming in front of his home crowd.
"At this stage and camp, you've done all you can to get to this point," he said.
"So there's really no improvement, sort of speed-wise. So my focus is on skills — that being starts and turns — and that's a big part of short course racing."
And leading into next week, Taylor said the high-performance athletes should be able to come away with medals against international competitors.
"We're always expecting athletes to just … get the best out of themselves," he said.
"When the moment comes. For us, it's about performing when it matters."
