The rivalry between Australia and America is legendary in swimming circles - and now it can be revealed just how desperate the US were to win the Olympic medal tally in the Paris pool.

While the likes of Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown endured testing conditions in the Olympic village, the same couldn't be said for the likes of Katie Ledecky and Regan Smith.

After Titmus won gold in the 400m freestyle, US swimming officials had seen enough. 

They whisked a handful of their global stars discreetly out of the village into a hotel which was walking distance from La Defense Arena.

Ultimately the move paid off, with the US finishing with eight gold medals compared to Australia's seven.

The triumph - which was secured in the final event of the swimming program - the women's 4x100m medley relay, also saw the US maintain their record as the yardstick swimming nation at the Games.

Australia has beaten America in the pool at an Olympics - way back in 1956 when the Games were staged in Melbourne.

It didn't take long for other nations to discover that a handful of US stars were recovering in pampered accommodation as opposed to the Olympic village - but given the move didn't break any rules, they had to bite their tongues.

'At the Olympics, you go in and you expect everything to be a fair playing field,' McKeown told News Corp.

'So [after hearing the hotel news] I was like, 'well, that's a bit of a blow to us'. We were travelling an hour to and from the village. 

'They [US] were staying just outside the village, walking to and from the pool.' 

The development comes as Titmus came under fire after she unleashed on the 'ridiculous' conditions inside the Olympic village.

'Living in the Olympic village makes it hard to perform,' she admitted in an interview.

'It's definitely not made for high performance, so it's about who can really keep it together in the mind.'

Retired Aussie Olympic swimmer James Magnussen also took a swipe at the Olympics, claiming the eco-friendly stance in Paris ruined athletes' chances of setting world records.

'There's multiple factors that make village life far from ideal,' the dual Olympian wrote in his News Corp column days into the Games.

'[Mainly] it's the cardboard beds, which can't give you optimal sleep,' he said.

'For me, the lack of world records boils down to this whole eco-friendly, carbon footprint, vegan-first mentality rather than high performance.'