James Magnussen has bluntly been told to "get over it" and move on by Australia's head swim coach Leigh Nugent.
OPINION: Superman is human, says Hackett And Nugent says if he can't, Magnussen probably doesn't have the make-up to be leader of the Australian pack.
"They just have to get over it and get on with it," Nugent told AAP.
Nugent believed Magnussen and his 4x100 metres freestyle relay teammates were crushed by a weight of expectation when failing to win a medal in Sunday night's Olympic final.
The gold medal favourites and reigning world champions finished fourth.
"The weight of expectation just might have overpowered them," Nugent said.
But he believed Magnussen and relay teammate James Roberts could recover from their disappointment for the individual 100m freestyle starting Tuesday.
"Anyone competing at this level in sport, if they can't overcome the disappointments, they probably haven't got what it takes in the long run," Nugent said.
"James has had a lot of success and James Roberts has put himself up there in the world.
"But I think they're probably, I wouldn't say naive enough, but they can look to tomorrow and say `oh well, I reckon I can go again' - they have got that exuberance of youth."
Nugent hoped the relay swimmers didn't feel they let the Australian team down.
"In a relay, other things can play on your mind - everyone else is dependent on you," he said.
"If you're one of the key people on that team and it doesn't come off, you might feel like you have let everyone down.
"And I would hope they don't feel like that."
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