GREAT advice
more allure to the keen Celtic fan. However, it was not to be and his most notable appearance at Parkhead was on the big screens as the club broadcast his Olympic final.
‘My dad was a semi-pro footballer Jamieson met Pele in London at a University of Edinburgh function, while he has been able to pass on tips to young swimmers as part of a new initiative on the back of his Olympic exploits, as he won silver for Team GB but, like so many of that era, he’s riddled with regret about his sporting career and perhaps not making the most of it,’ revealed Jamieson. ‘He didn’t push for either football or swimming in particular when I was young. His was just to work hard and I would get to where I wanted. It was pretty basic stuff but it has stayed with me since I was a kid. In the end, I chose swimming.’
While it may be tempting to say the rest is history, that is not the way Jamieson sees it. As he prepares to embark on a UK tour looking to inspire a new generation of Olympians, including what promises to be an emotional and celebratory homecoming to Glasgow on Wednesday, there is no chance of this ambitious young man from Bishopbriggs simply being satisfied with silver.
Having secured the fourth-fastest time ever in the 200m breaststroke at the Aquatics Centre, there are new targets on the horizon, new challenges to be met.
But does he have the belief, given 15 and 16-year-olds were smashing world records at the Olympics, that he has the ability and drive to do the same at the ripe old age of 24?
‘Yeah, I have to — otherwise, it’s time for me to bow out,’ said Jamieson, with the Bath-based Scot targeting both Glasgow 2014 and the Rio Olympics in 2016.
‘There’s room to improve, there has to be. I want to be involved in the sport for the next few years and I want to be challenging for medals.
‘Things are always moving forward and I need to do the same. I’ll have a couple of weeks off but then I’ll come back and do some race analysis and pick out some weaknesses from the final. I’ll work on them and, hopefully, start taking some time off that.
‘Breaking that world record is not as crazy as it sounds. It’s now a realistic goal for me and I want to break it next year.’