A ‘big-game swimmer’, great Scott sets sights on 100m freestyle glory
Duncan Scott has grown accustomed to the attention and the spotlight. A perk, perhaps a chore, of earning a pair of precious Olympic silver medals from the relays at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
More bright and confident than any 20-year-old has the right to be, the swimmer has been called upon to lend his voice in myriad spots but speaking in the Scottish Parliament, in front of an audience of the great and the good, summed up his status as a face for his sport.
“It was an experience, anyway,” he grins. “I don’t really mind public speaking. We do quite a lot of presentations at university, so it’s nothing too bad. But they set it up like a game show. They had like three people on one side, three on the other, so I don’t know. I watch Would I Lie To You? quite a lot. I got in and I just thought it was like a game show. I thought it was fine. It was alright. I mean, my bit was quite short, that was the main thing.”
No prizes on offer but still an instruction to stay in his lane. Scott’s ferocious competitive streak prefers when there are valuable incentives on offer to pump up his inner volume and make some noise. Hence he will relish his first appearance at the Commonwealth Games tonight on the Gold Coast in a 200 metres freestyle which will be one among six potential events here, each either offering medal prospects or opportunities to learn.
Yet achieving, at the age of 18, what so many spend their lives dreaming of could have sent him scarpering into the abyss of partying and procrastination. Dan Wallace, hiscohortinriowhodefends his 400m medley title tomorrow, struggled for motivation
0 Duncan Scott could race in six events in the Queensland pool. once he had reached an Olympic podium.
Scott, with time on his side and potential to burn, met with his coach Steve Tigg and plotted what gaps needed to be filled. “I looked at it and the performances that I put in in Rio were obviously really good at the time,” he reveals.
“Then it was just seeing how I can go from there and try and move that on, individually. I did that last year and I went another step forward.”
A world championship gold, more personal bests. Further learning at his base at Stirling University. “Another step forward on from Rio, which I’m obviously delighted with. But yeah, Rio, for me, was quite different. It was a shock but it was also, in a way, me swimming to my potential. In other competitions previously, I may not have.”
“I am a big-game swimmer,” he declares. A lover of the crowd and the energy and the adrenaline rush. The Olympic atmosphere brought out the best in him. More of the same, he hopes, in the open air pool under the Queensland sunshine – or, even its rain. British colleagues who are rivals, vice versa, they push him on. “Really, my success has gone down to them, and it has done, basically, across all my medals. So yeah, I’ve got to really put it down to how successful Britain is and Scotland, as a team.”
With the first medals in the pool coming this morning, UK time, he will hope there are Scottish leads to follow. The 200m could bring him a medal. The 100m free on Saturday is where his golden goose might be laid. Ranked in the world’s top four at the close of last year – the same place he achieved in the event in the individual final in Rio – the trajectory suggests this could be where the Alloa youngster can reign supreme come Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics.
The Australians will try to hold him in check. “The 100-metre free, for me, if I can be as close to people as possible at 50 metres, then I’ve got a better chance than usual. Yeah, I think no matter what event you’re doing, you need to get out there and enjoy it, so I go there and try and enjoy every race that I do.”
But this is serious stuff too. His Olympic silvers came as part of a team. The greats are judged by their solo work. He knows it. “I’d like to try and keep moving on,” he says. “Fourth at world championships last year, that was a massive step forward, so I just need to try and maintain that progression and see where I can come.”