The Quietly Confident Quartet was the self-given name of the Australian men's 4 × 100 metres medley relay swimming team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

The team was nominally led by its oldest member Tonelli, who was 23 and was also a spokesperson for the Australian athletes' campaign for their right to compete at the Olympics against the wishes of the Fraser government.

Australia had previously won medals in the event, but was not regarded as one of the favourites for the gold, as the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and Sweden all fielded more decorated swimmers over the component legs of the relay.

However, Evans was the fastest among the breaststrokers and moved the team into second position at the halfway point in the race; and Tonelli, a makeshift butterflyer, completed his leg in a time much faster than his previous best, allowing Australia to keep the Soviet lead reasonable.

Australia's anchor swimmer Brooks overtook his more credentialled Soviet counterpart Sergey Koplyakov in the latter half of the final leg to secure a narrow victory.

The quartet disbanded after the Olympics due to Tonelli's retirement, although some of the members continued to be present in the relay team at various times alongside new swimmers.

An obstacle arose with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which resulted in a boycott of the Games by a large part of the Western world, led by the United States.

[14] Tonelli's anti-authoritarian and individualistic style manifested itself during media appearances,[15] including a news interview in which he debated with Reverend Lance Shilton, who had called the athletes traitors.

He responded by rolling his eyes and twirling his finger, a gaffe that was shown on national television;[15] Tonelli mistakenly thought that only his voice was being broadcast at the time and that the images were showing something else.

[4] In the five previous times the event had been contested, Australia's best result had come in the inaugural race in Rome, where the team of David Theile, Terry Gathercole, Neville Hayes, and Geoff Shipton out-touched Japan to claim silver.

The only other time that Australia had won a medal was in Tokyo in 1964, when Peter Reynolds, Ian O'Brien, Kevin Berry, and David Dickson finished behind the United States and Germany.

[21] Australia was regarded by swimming analysts as a medal chance, but were not seen as the main threats—Sweden, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union were the most heavily fancied teams.

[4] The hosts had the silver medallists in the 100 m backstroke and breaststroke, Viktor Kuznetsov and Arsens Miskarovs respectively, and their butterflyer Yevgeny Seredin had come fifth in his 100 m event.

Sweden's butterflyer Pär Arvidsson and backstroker Bengt Baron had won their respective 100 m events and their freestyle swimmer Per Holmertz would win silver in the 100 m a few days later.

Brooks later came seventh in his 100 m freestyle semifinal and 14th overall after having an asthma attack,[24][25] and Evans was Australia's only medallist in the corresponding individual event, winning bronze in the breaststroke.

[29] Evans brashly took the opportunity to attempt to regain the psychological ascendancy from Goodhew, confronting him privately and stating that "we will win it", later reporting that the Briton was astounded by his posturing.

He asked his compatriots to commit to swimming their legs in a certain time; Kerry vowed to swim the backstroke in 57 s, Evans the breaststroke in 63 s flat, Tonelli the butterfly in 54 s and Brooks promised to anchor the team in 49.8 s, even though he had never gone faster than 51 s. Tonelli named the foursome the "Quietly Confident Quartet" because they exhibited a reserved self-belief as they lined up for the race.

[4][9] Patching was one of several backstrokers who had slipped on the starting area earlier in the meet, so Kerry decided to rub a sticky red substance onto the soles of his feet.

[4] He began to lose ground in the last 50 m and was a bodylength behind Seredin until a late surge brought him to within a metre by the time the swimmers touched the wall.

[33] However, the Australian Olympic chef de mission Phil Coles confirmed at the following day's press conference that the quartet had not received a message from Malcolm Fraser.

The backstroker attempted a comeback in the leadup to the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, but his abbreviated preparation before the selection trials was not enough and he was defeated by other swimmers.

[37] In 1984, Kerry secured a recall to the team as Australia's preferred backstroker,[12] while Brooks was surpassed by Mark Stockwell as the leading freestyler.

[37] Evans and Kerry retired after the Olympics,[12][37] and Brooks was not the first-choice swimmer in 1986, meaning that a totally different quartet competed in the medley relay at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

Brooks was suspended for drunken behaviour on the flight back to Australia, and then retired, and all four members of the Quietly Confident Quartet had departed the Australian swimming scene.