But Cate Campbell hasn't ruled out extending her glittering career to a record five after the Tokyo Games were postponed until 2021.

The former world champion admitted retirement was on the horizon after the 2020 Olympics, where she would have joined Leisel Jones in Australian swimming's elite club.

However, a now three year wait for Paris 2024 after Tokyo has got Campbell wondering.

Swimming great Kieren Perkins believed the Tokyo Games' 12-month postponement due to coronavirus may be a bridge too far for some veteran swimmers, forcing them to call it a day.

But Campbell has proven she can thrive on extended breaks, returning with a vengeance from a 2017 hiatus to regroup after her Rio 100m freestyle disappointment.

And she didn't dismiss the suggestion the postponement could help extend her career to 2024 when she will be 32.

"I always said I wouldn't discount another Olympics but I was thinking Tokyo would be my last because four years is a long time between drinks," she told AAP.

"Now it will be only three years (until Paris). Do you keep going and try and push for (2024)?

"I am not sure. I think it really depends mentally and physically if I feel I am capable of going around again."

The lure of the budding International Swimming League may also tempt Campbell to stay in the pool.

Last year Campbell emerged as one of the stars of the inaugural ISL, the brainchild of Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin, which featured more than 100 Olympians competing for cash prizes in six legs around the world.

Campbell helped London Roar qualify for the ISL final in Las Vegas last December with $A145,000 prize money on offer for the winning team and $A72,500 awarded to the season's MVP.

In 2020 the ISL were set to add two more teams, Tokyo and Toronto, and expand their schedule to 27 races from September to April 2021 with the hope rounds could be held in Australia for the first time.

Apart from the cash, ISL events have the added attraction of some of the sport's biggest names competing in an atmosphere more akin to nightclubs with rounds boasting a DJ, a light show and packed houses.

It's a far cry from a typical day at the pool for swimmers who for years were on minimum wage enduring lap after monotonous lap training in front of no one at a time when most are still snuggled up in bed.

No wonder she wants to hang around.

"Part of me thinks it is a really exciting time in the world of swimming with the ISL starting to pick up, and creating a whole new series of competitions, which will hopefully have a couple of events down in Australia," Campbell said.

"For me that is also really exciting. Swimming can be a monotonous sport and I have been doing it a long time but now there are so many options available, in lots of different formats around the world.

"I feel like I don't want to miss out."

Dual Olympic 1500m freestyle champ Perkins said if anyone could keep swimming until Paris, it was Campbell after witnessing her remarkable 2018 comeback.

After taking a 12-month sabbatical following her shock sixth placing in the Rio 100m final, a refreshed Campbell dominated the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs before grabbing five medals at last year's world titles.

"For older athletes at the end of their careers it could go either way," Perkins said of the Tokyo Games' 12 month postponement.

"For myself if it happened before my last Olympics at Sydney (2000) part of me would have said I would retire because the thought of going for another year was just too much to bear.

"On the flipside the break might help give you perspective, find the energy to go hard one last time.

"And we saw Cate refreshed and firing the last time she had an extended break - this might be the perfect thing for her."

Australian Associated Press