THEIR Beijing booty may have been a little short on gold but Australia's swimmers appear set to plunder plenty more Olympic treasure in London.

Coming off a record total medal haul in China, they still have talent to burn with Grant Hackett the only star definitely out of the picture for the 2012 Olympics. Libby Trickett and Leisel Jones are weighing up their futures but they are a better chance than not of continuing.

If Australian swimming can retain them, the team is going to remain a formidable outfit in the lead-up to the London Games.

One of the key ingredients for the healthy state of affairs is head youth coach Leigh Nugent. His nickname is Nugget and he spots gold-medal talent like few others.

He oversaw the team's best away performance in Athens as head coach before stepping down to run what is considered the world's best youth program.

The rise of Stephanie Rice, Eamon Sullivan, Cate Campbell, Emily Seebohm and Andrew Lauterstein under him is no coincidence.

And while 16-year-olds Campbell and Seebohm had mixed meets at the Water Cube, they both leave Beijing with medals, knowing they can cut it on sport's biggest stage.

The women's squad has frightening depth. There was only one of the 16 women's finals in the pool missing Australian participation.

It is far from doom and gloom in the men, too, even if they failed to win gold in the pool for the first time since the disastrous 1976 Montreal Olympics.

The men got medals in all strokes for the first time and the emergence of backstroker Hayden Stoeckel and butterflyer Lauterstein was a nice surprise and Sullivan's narrow losses will surely fire him up for London.