There have been tears, cheers and hugs as Australia’s Olympic athletes arrived home from the most successful Games in the nation’s history.

Three days after the curtain fell on the Paris Games, hundreds of athletes arrived at a rainy Sydney Airport early on Wednesday morning to be greeted by friends, family and fans, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“Before the plane took off yesterday, you had already etched your names into Australian sport history,” Albanese told the returning athletes.

He said all those who had competed were “worth their weight in gold” and had made Australia proud.

Australia won 18 gold medals, 19 silver and 16 bronze for a 53-medal haul.

“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,” discus bronze medallist Matthew Denny said.

He said Paris had been “an amazing experience”.

Swimmer Ariarne Titmus hugs father Steve after arriving back in Sydney. Photo: Getty

Emma 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,” McKeon said.

She extended her career medal haul to 14 in Paris, with another gold, silver and bronze.

“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 from three earlier 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 became Australia’s youngest Olympic medallist when she collected gold in the park skateboarding, said she was still buzzing from the Games. But reality was calling.

“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.”

Later, Trew told Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren show she’d given up the business class seat her gold medal entitled her to, to sit beside her two best friends on the long flight home.

“I’m pretty sure somebody else got it because me and my friends were walking around the plane, and we went up there, and it was all full. So I definitely think somebody like else was sitting there but I don’t mind,” she said.

Team Australia was greeted in Sydney by a plethora of officials including Albanese, Governor-General Sam Mostyn and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

More flights were due to land in Melbourne and Brisbane later on Wednesday.

The early morning arrival in Sydney also followed some Western Australia-based Olympians arriving in Perth late on Tuesday. They included gold and bronze medallists Nina Kennedy and Charlie Senior, and were welcomed home by WA Premier Roger Cook.

-with AAP