Max Giuliani has won one final medal to provide a silver lining for Australia's swimmers at a record-busting world short course championships destined to go down in history as the 'Gretchen Walsh Games'.
Giuliani finished second in the 200m freestyle final on the last day of the championships in Budapest on Sunday as the Dolphins finished with a dozen medals, headed by the two golds from Lani Pallister and Elijah Winnington.
But at a championships featuring 30 new world marks in the Duna Arena's 25-metre pool, the Aussies were largely bit-part players alongside the 21-year-old American Walsh, who set 11 world records over six days - nine individual and two in relays.
She completed the most astounding week's work in short course annals by, first, breaking the 50m freestyle mark in the final in 22.83sec on Sunday.
She then returned for the women's finale, swimming the butterfly leg in the 4x100m medley relay alongside Regan Smith, Lilly King and Kate Douglass as the US 'super-quartet' blasted to another landmark time, 3min 40.41sec.
It was Walsh's seventh world title of the week, while her 11 records earned her $237,500 in total in bonuses.
"I've had a really good week, I'm always going to cherish it," said the Nashville swimmer, the brightest star of a hugely dominant US team that cleaned up with 18 golds, 13 silver and eight bronze - 39 medals in all.
For Giuliani, the 21-year-old who nearly gave up the sport to take up plumbing before grabbing a chance to travel to the Gold Coast for "one final crack" at resurrecting his swimming career, his efforts must have seemed worth it after he finished behind only US world-record breaker Luke Hobson.
The Tasmanian clocked an Oceania record one minute 40.36sec, ploughing through from fifth after the first length to second at the 150m mark.
But he couldn't live with Hobson, whose 1:38.61 slashed three-tenths of a second off his own record.
"To do a PB, get a national and Oceania record and win my first international senior podium, I can’t be too disappointed - and then to swim with my mates in a relay, which I love doing, I’m pretty happy," said Giuliani, who later finished sixth with Isaac Cooper, Josh Yong and Matt Temple in the 4x100m medley.
Pallister, gold medallist in the women's 800m freestyle, ended her championships -- in which she also won two silvers and a bronze -- by finishing fourth in the 200m freestyle (1:51.75) behind Hong Kong winner, Siobhan Haughey (1:50.62). Pallister's teammate Leah Neale was seventh (1:53.21).
Meg Harris (23.73) was fifth in the 50m free behind Walsh, while Iona Anderson (2:04.60) was seventh in another milestone final, with American Smith completing her backstroke treble in the 200m with a new global mark of 1:58.04.
Team coach Simon Cusack felt the final haul of two gold, five silver and five bronze - which left Australia sixth in the table and featured 22 personal best times from a 24-strong team featuring nine rookies - had made it an "incredibly successful campaign".
"For the first time, the rookies have had to juggle a lot of swims that they wouldn’t have got on a full team. We’ve pulled swimmers from everywhere and the relays have punched above their weight," he said.
"What you’re seeing here are the names you’re going to see on the runway to the LA Olympics.
"We also have two scholarship coaches here (Ben Tuxford and Michaela Pattinson) so this is a blue chip investment ahead of LA."
