Teenager Mclay flying high as he graduates from junior ranks to Commonwealth team
Scott Mclay has had his head in the clouds for years but his sky high ambitions have never been anything less than realistic, even if he wasn’t always convinced.
The 18-year-old swimmer, pictured, has been named in the Scotland team for next year’s Commonwealth Games and hopes he can build on this summer’s youth games, where he won three golds, a silver and bronze to become the nation’s most successful athlete ever at that youth event.
Joining 20 other swimmers as part of Team Scotland, his inclusion saw the realisation of one of this year’s goals but, as he tries to combine his swimming ambitions with gaining his pilot’s licence, he is hoping to soar even higher.
“At the beginning of the season, I had put getting to Gold Coast down there as something to strive for but I didn’t think I would be going,” said the Stirling Universitybased athlete. “It was just there to give me a target.”
But, a good showing at the European juniors bolstered his belief, while his achievements at the Youth Games, in Bahamas, allowed him to book his place on the plane to Australia and vindicate his mother’s faith in him. “I watched Stephen Milne and watched Ross Murdoch win the 200m [at Glasgow 2014]. I remember sitting there and my mum was saying ‘you could be there in four years time’ but I said ‘no, I won’t’ because I just didn’t think I would be able to get to the level I am at now.”
But he has always aimed high. Ever since he was taken flying by his dad, aged five.
“I like to fly. I want to be a commercial pilot. My dad lives over in California, so when I go over there, him and I go flying.
“We are part of Orange County flight school and we fly to San Diego, to Los Angeles, to Palm Springs and around that area.
“Age 16 is when you can start to get your pilot’s licence and I am in the very early stage of that. I will concentrate on swimming for as long as I can, and hopefully get to the Olympics in Tokyo 2020 and then, after swimming, I want to move on to being a pilot.”