Rickard has played an instrumental role in the delivery of the event after being appointed as executive director of the Melbourne 2022 Organising Committee.

The Australian city was given a little more than six months to pull off the staging of the World Swimming Championships (25m) after replacing Russian city Kazan which was stripped of the hosting rights in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Rickard told insidethegames that he initially rejected the position of executive director when he was approached in May before agreeing to take on the challenge of heading up the Organising Committee.

"To have six months to put together a World Championships that has 750 athletes from 160 countries is a big undertaking and luckily I knew a few people that were keen to be involved and I have absolutely trust and faith in their ability," said Rickard.

"Once I knew that they were on board, that gave me the confidence to say let’s get it done.

"It has been hectic as we don’t have a huge team and some of these things were only being finalised as early as four or five days ago, that’s what we signed up for."

Following Rickard’s appointment, the outdoor pool at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre (MSAC) was swiftly chosen as the venue for the World Swimming Championships (25m).

However, Rickard said holding the event at the MSAC, which was built for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, did not come without a series of challenges.

"We only had so much time and so much money so we had maximise that to make sure that the athletes have a great experience," said Rickard.

"You want to do so much for them but you can only stretch so far so I am incredibly proud of what the team put together out here.

"I think the biggest thing we were not prepared for was what we were going back to.

"This pool hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games - I swam in it - but in 16 years the sport has changed with the LED backdrops, ribbons on the side of the pool and this is short course rather long course.

"We had to revert a community-based facility back into event mode so it was a real challenge timewise to get things designed, get grandstands in, lighting done and scaffolds up for the walls on the south and north ends.

"It was a huge undertaking and then you throw into the mix the complexity of 160 counties so the language barrier was something that I had not experienced before.

"You realise that two years is a good timeframe because six months is cutting it a bit fine."

Victoria is also facing another tight turnaround to deliver the 2026 Commonwealth Games after securing the hosting rights in April.

A new Aquatics Centre is expected to be built at Armstrong Creek in Geelong for Victoria 2026 that is set to be the first regional Games.

Officials from Victoria 2026 are due to attend the World Swimming Championships (25m) and Rickard believes they will be able to gather key knowledge.

"I look at this venue and see how much we have overlaid temporarily and I think that will be a key part of what they will have to do in 2026 given some of the locations and facilities," said Rickard.

"They are wonderful facilities but not necessarily designed for international competition so understanding how to maximise the impact of your spend and scale things right.

"I think there will be some learnings that will hopefully be passed on to the Victoria 2026 team because this shows that you don’t necessarily need a multi-billion dollar budget to run a multi-sport event if you are tactical, you are sharp and you priorities the key stuff to be able to run an international event on a very small budget."

Rickard claimed two silvers at Beijing 2008 and bronze at London 2012 before ending his professional swimming career in 2013.

He is also a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning one at Melbourne 2006 and two at Delhi 2010.