For the first time Australia's entire swimming team will miss an Olympic Games opening ceremony after head coach Jacco Verhaeren pulled them out to boost their quest for the world No.1 ranking.
On the day Australia's opening ceremony uniforms were unveiled, Verhaeren confirmed his whole squad would not feature in the march into Rio's Maracana Stadium.
Verhaeren wants his team to stay together as they focus on going one better than the 2015 world titles in Russia and topple arch rivals United States for the No.1 ranking at Rio.
"It was a decision we made following on from our world championship campaign in Kazan last year that we will do everything as a team," Verhaeren said.
"We will be marching in the closing ceremony as a team and we will be doing other activities along the way as a team."
Verhaeren was hired in the wake of Australia's "toxic" London Olympic campaign tasked with claiming the world No.1 ranking by the 2020 Games.
But Australia went close to reclaiming the top seed for the first time since 2001 at last August's world titles in Kazan.
They won seven gold, just short of No.1 United States (eight gold).
Verhaeren also believes skipping the opening ceremony is the best way for the entire team to stick to their routine for the Games swimming competition - featuring new late night finals - which begins the next day.
At past Olympics, swimmers could decide for themselves whether they took part in the opening ceremony based on their individual schedules.
The Rio Olympic swimming heats, usually held in the morning, will start at 1pm local time with finals starting at 10pm to suit US TV audiences.
The Australian Olympic Committee said they had left the decision up to the team leaders whether athletes wanted to march or not at the opening ceremony.
Dual world champion Mitch Larkin had no problem with Verhaeren's call.
"I think that is quite professional of him, the goal is for us to compete," he said.
"That's one of the sacrifices we have to make."
Australia's Olympic swimming team will be selected at April 7-14 trials in Adelaide.
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