Matt Wearn Paris Olympics: Why Aussie who competed in an event you’ve probably never heard of was first off the plane ahead of swimming’s golden girls as team returned home

Aussies who expected to see one of the nation’s Olympic superstars get off the plane first as the team returned home on Wednesday when one of the least-known members of the team led them onto home soil – but there’s a simple explanation.

Instead of double gold medal winner Ariarne Titmus, Jessica Fox or skateboarding record breaker Arisa Trew, viewers saw Matt Wearn welcome the crowd first after he won gold in the men’s dinghy sailing event.

It might seem like a bizarre choice to give pride of place to a competitor in one of the lowest-profile sports at the Games, but there’s a good reason for it.

Both Wearn and swimmer Kaylee McKeown – who was next off the plane on Wednesday – were chosen as Australia’s flag bearers for the closing ceremony.   

Three days after the curtain fell on the Paris Games, the pair led hundreds of athletes as they arrived at a rainy Sydney Airport to be greeted by friends, family and fans, and prime minister Anthony Albanese.

Australia won 18 gold medals, 19 silver and 16 bronze for a 53-medal haul in the country’s best ever result at an Olympic Games.

McKeon, the most decorated Australian in Olympic history, said she’d been looking forward to touching down in Australia, calling it a special moment.

‘I guess it’s just everything you train for and everything you work hard for,’ she said after extending her career medal haul to 14 by collecting another gold, silver and bronze in Paris.

The winner of the men’s dinghy sailing event emerged just ahead of Australia’s most successful Olympian ever, swimming superstar Kaylee McKeown (right)

‘And I guess all the support that we’ve got around us as well, it’s just as much their medal, so I think it’s just coming home and seeing this and having my special people here and all that, it’s just it makes it all worth it.’

Swimming gold medallist Cameron McEvoy said his Paris triumph more than made up for the near-misses of his previous three Olympic campaigns.

‘It took four goes to be able to come back on home soil with this beauty (his gold medal) but we got there in the end,’ McEvoy said.

‘It’s been eight years since we’ve had a hangar introduction back on home soil post-Olympics, so that’s nice.’

Arisa Trew, the 14-year-old who won park skateboarding gold, said she was still buzzing from the Games.

Wearn defended the title he won at the Tokyo Games with an outstanding effort in France

Wearn and McKeown were the first athletes off the plane because they were the flagbearers for Australia at the Paris Games closing ceremony (pictured)

‘I’m probably going to go to school tomorrow, because I love going to school,’ she said.

‘I can’t wait to see all my friends tomorrow or maybe tonight at the skate park.’

Discus bronze medallist Matthew Denny said Paris had been ‘an amazing experience’.

‘It’s been a great reception, and I think I am just really proud of being able to do something that makes a lot of other people happy,’ he said.

Team Australia was greeted by a plethora of officials including Mr Albanese, governor-general Sam Mostyn and opposition leader Peter Dutton.