The Australian Swimming, Diving, Water Polo and Open Water Swimming teams have arrived back in Australia following a successful 2011 FINA World Championship in Shanghai, China.

In total, the Australian delegation won 16 medals, 13 of which were won in the swimming pool, two in the diving pool and one in the open water.

The Australian Government is a strong supporter of Swimming Australia, contributing almost $11 million in annual funding, including the recent $1 million boost to the training and preparations of Australia’s top swimmers under the Government’s Green and Gold project.

Australian Swimming Head coach Leigh Nugent believes the national swim team is well placed a year out from the London Olympics.

‘Where we're positioned at the minute is an encouraging place to be but we know there is a lot of hard work ahead of us between now and London,’ Nugent said.

‘We're positioned a bit better than any other nation (behind the United States) apart from China as far as they've succeeded in more gold medals than us.’

‘For us I think this is a much better performances than what we had in 2009 even though in 2009 there were three gold medals.’

James Magnussen captured the swimming world’s attention by becoming the first Australian ever to win gold in the men’s 100m freestyle final and the success of Australia’s swim relay teams vindicated the recent work of our top male sprinters at the AIS.

The FINA World Swimming championships have highlighted how government support can assist our elite athletes achieve high performance outcomes, with support from across the State and Territory Institutes and Academies of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport.

Last month James Magnussen and his fellow teammates utilised the world class facilities to work on their relay changeovers to prepare for the Olympic Games and beyond.

The high-tech ‘Wet Plate’ technology helped to fine-tune and improve the changeovers of Australia’s male relay swimmers. Those fractions of a second proved instrumental in bridging the gap between fourth place and the medal podium.

The Australian team of Melissa Gorman, Ky Hurst and Rhys Mainstone won silver in the Open water 5km team event.

Racing as a team of three in a time-trial style event, the Aussie trio was the 12th to depart at one-minute intervals and overtook four teams on their way finishing second in 57 minutes, just a second behind the gold medal-winning United States.

Australia’s two medals in diving came in the Women’s 3m Synchronised (Sharleen Stratton / Annabelle Smith) and Women’s 10m Synchronised (Alexandra Croak and Melissa Wu).

Their outstanding performance against the world’s best divers has them well placed leading into the London Games next year.

Diving Australia receives around nearly $1.4 million in high performance funding. The AIS also plays an integral role in supporting the national diving program, with the Government providing nearly $650,000 in annual funding for the AIS National Training Centre in Brisbane.

The Australian Stingers defeated World No.1 the United States (10-5) to finish fifth in the women’s water polo, while the Australian Sharks men’s team defeated Canada 8-6 to finish ninth.

Water Polo receives over $2.5 million in annual funding.

Full list of medal winners from the 2011 FINA World Championships in Shanghai