As a veteran of three Olympics and Commonwealth Games, David Carry knows all too well what it can feel like to have the pressure of expectation weighing you down.

"I would liken it to surfing on a wave: either you catch that and it lifts you all the way into shore or it really crushes you," he said.

In his swimming career, Carry has experienced both. When he made his Commonwealth Games debut in Manchester in 2002, he recalls battling nerves so ferocious he was "terrified and shaking walking out to the final". Four years later in Melbourne, he was a double gold medallist, overhauling the might of the home favourites to do so.

Carry is now looking forward to his fourth successive Commonwealth Games, but this time around he will be staying firmly on dry land. The 31-year-old, who retired from the sport last October, has been named as one of five new official ambassadors for Glasgow 2014 alongside heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, boxer Nicola Adams, fellow swimmer Michael Jamieson and Scotland's most successful Commonwealth Games

athlete, Allan Wells.

It's a role he is relishing getting his teeth into. "As soon as I knew I wasn't going to be in the pool, I wanted to be involved with Glasgow 2014," he said. "The best way to describe my role is as a 'critical friend'. I'm going to be there helping them understand what it's like to be an athlete performing at the Commonwealth Games.

"Having had the opportunity to compete at three - Manchester, Melbourne and Delhi - I've seen the great bits and the not so good. Keeping things on track from that point of view is going to be really important."

Since ending his decade-long international swimming career last year, Aberdeen-born Carry has been far from idle. He and his wife Keri-Anne Payne, herself a double world champion and Olympic silver medallist open water swimmer, are settling into life in Edinburgh where Carry has been forging a new path in sports management with firm Red Sky.

"My job is to help athletes compete at their optimum, so it's looking at their sporting performance and making the most out of that," he said. "Running alongside that, we have this double career track so everything they do outside their sporting environment is geared up to making sure they have got another career after they retire."

Carry was only four the last time the Commonwealth Games came to Scotland in 1986. While he has no real memories of that time, he has watched some of the powerful and emotive footage from Edinburgh.

"I've seen a lot of the clips and there is real passion to it," he said. "To think of that being here on home turf in Glasgow, with all those images being beamed out across the world, is going to be special. Someone like Jess Ennis-Hill, you can tell how important it is for her to come here and compete to get that title. It's a huge honour to stand on top of that podium and see your country's flag raised."

Having twice had the opportunity to soak up that electric home crowd atmosphere - first as a rookie at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and then in his swansong at the 2012 Olympics in London - Carry is keen to pass on some of that experience to others in the Scottish team.

"In my day job, I work closely with a lot of swimmers but also the rugby sevens and judo players," he said. "To think I can play even a small part in that, which could take someone from a ninth place into the final, or a fourth place onto the podium, is incredibly exciting. That is my absolute motivation: to help people perform at a high level."

Carry has no regrets about announcing his retirement last year. "It would have been great to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but I'm very realistic and knew that London was a stretch for me to get there," he said. "I'm incredibly proud of the way I was able to perform in London but I knew time was up on my sporting career. I don't have any regrets whatsoever. The fact I'm able to be part of the Commonwealth Games and have this role is the next best thing."

While Carry's plans for next summer are now concrete, his wife is still making up her mind. Since relocating to the capital from Manchester last year, the 25-year-old now trains with the historic Warrender Baths Club - whose famed alumni include Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion David Wilkie - under the tutelage of Laurel Bailey and Kris Gilchrist.

With no open water event in the Commonwealth Games, she is still weighing up whether to switch to the pool in order to compete for her native England. "Keri-Anne hasn't decided quite what she will be doing yet," said Carry. "She is currently taking three weeks off after the World Championships to look at what she is going to do next. It's exciting to think she has a range of opportunities open to her. It's just picking which one she wants to go for."

Carry, meanwhile, has been enjoying dabbling in a range of sports including triathlon, badminton and recently paid a visit to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow for a quick spin. "I went a few weeks ago, paid my £10 and got my level one accreditation to ride the track," he said. "I was absolutely terrified to begin with and couldn't believe how steep [the banking] is. It's just awesome."

He reckons Glasgow will give previous Commonwealth Games a run for their money when it comes to putting on a show. "I think in the same way that London was able to capture the British psyche, Glasgow is going to do that in a very Scottish sense," he said. "It really is incredible how many people really care about the Games coming to Glasgow and to see the general public engaging in that. The signs are good."

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