After a night of celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Australian athletes are preparing to catch the first of two specially chartered flights home.
The Qantas flight at 8.45pm (0945 AEST Tuesday) is taking the majority of athletes and officials home from what team boss Kitty Chiller has described as the "toughest Games ever".
Among the passengers are the nine athletes whose passports were returned on Sunday after a last-minute renegotiation regarding payment of fines for falsifying documents.
The athletes were detained by police overnight on Friday for close to 10 hours and charged with altering their Olympic accreditations - a practice Chiller said was widespread, and that she had failed to end.
She returns home with a question mark over her future, declining to answer when asked if she would stand down.
Australia's eight gold medals, the same as London 2012 and the worst since Barcelona 1992, put them in 10th place on the medals table after aiming for 16 gold and a top five place.
Swimmer Josh Palmer is also on the passenger manifest, having been interviewed by Rio police for nearly six hours on Saturday over his claims he was robbed at gunpoint in Copacabana.
An Australian Olympic official said police accepted his version of events and no further action would be taken.
The Australian team spent their final night together in Rio at the athletes' village, with Chiller lifting the alcohol ban.
"The team came back from the closing (ceremony) and had a really raucous night singing songs in the hub (at the village)," an AOC spokesman said.
"They absolutely raised the roof off building 23."
