IT’S coming home (pending a few crossed t’s and dotted i’s). There are few sure bets in sport, but you can wager that Duncan Scott will be flying the flag when it does.
Britain’s most decorated Olympic swimmer sits on a creaky plastic chair among floats and rubber rings. We’re packed into a cupboard next to the pool at The Peak. The walls are a curious shade of green that suggests someone at Stirling Council was anticipating a brat summer.
Mere days after the conclusion to the Games, Scott is at the leisure centre helping to inspire the next generation of swimmers and hammering home the importance of these facilities to local communities during a time when many of them are under threat in Scotland.
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Fresh – or as fresh as one can be after nine days, 11 races, six finals and two medals – off the back of another stunning summer, the Alloa native lights up when the subject is broached of the Commonwealth Games potentially returning to Glasgow.
“How many people have swam in two home Commonwealth Games?,” he says. “That’d be pretty nuts.”
He’s not wrong – in fact despite it being just 12 years since that first visit to Glasgow, he may even be the only Scot to pull off the remarkable feat come 2026. Many of the 38-strong 2014 Scottish swim team have retired or fallen out of the picture in the intervening years, with Kathleen Dawson and Lucy Hope the most likely to challenge for another homecoming.
“I’ve been so fortunate with so many home competitions, I’ve kind of been spoiled in that regard,” he continues, having also picked up three golds at the 2018 European Championships in the city.
“Glasgow are always great hosts no matter what sporting event it might be or other things. The crowds always get right behind it, the fans always get right behind it.
“I’ve been there for a lot of other competitions in the past, lots of Scottish Swimming meets have been done there and they’ve done a great job so if they go on to host it that’d be a great thing but there’s probably quite a few steps that need to be taken before that. I don’t know where they are in planning or negotiations or anything like that.”
He’ll need to travel a bit further for the next Olympics, with Los Angeles the venue for 2028, but you imagine airport security is a nightmare for Scott these days, what with the eight medals jangling around his neck. After adding gold in the freestyle relay and silver in the 200m medley to his tally in Paris, the 27-year-old has overtaken Sir Chris Hoy as Scotland’s most decorated Olympian.
Scott is determined to use this profile boost and enhanced platform for good and, after a week decompressing, wanted to strike while the iron was hot by helping out with swimming lessons locally.
Pool closures have been on the rise since Covid as councils look to squeeze budgets, with even Scott’s home pool at Alloa shuttered in 2021, and the troubles the Murray family have had in building on Andy’s tennis legacy in this country down the years are well-documented. Scott is thinking ahead and doing his utmost to ensure his heroics have a long-lasting impact.
“We’re here straight off the back of the Olympic Games to do it as quick as possible and while it’s in people’s minds, when people are thinking about different sports, thinking about swimming,” explains Scott.
“The ChangeMakers partnership with The National Lottery, All In, Team GB and others have helped me be here today at The Peak Leisure facility looking ahead to that next generation, to be able to give back to different communities up and down the country.
“I train about half a mile away from here and it’s really special to be able to be here and I’m really privileged. It’s great to be able to give back locally but also up and down the country as well.
“It’s a sport that I have got a lot of passion for and I love the sport, I love competing at the highest level but then also I loved learning to swim.
“All the kids in the same area, different social aspects that you do throughout it, learning together, I guess failing together as well, it’s a really powerful sport, starting to feel safe and confident in the water as well.
“But seeing those sorts of opportunities getting taken away for different kids is quite difficult to watch so I think for me it’s more that I’m quite passionate about, making sure kids have got that opportunity, firstly to have a life skill but also too it could be something they love. It could be what they’re passionate about so just to give them that chance.”
Duncan is part of an athlete ChangeMaker initiative, a partnership between The National Lottery’s operator, Allwyn, Team GB, ParalympicsGB and UK Sport to support athletes who want to help social impact projects they are passionate about. Across the next few weeks over 100 athletes from Team GB, ParalympicsGB and from The National Lottery funded world class performance programme are going out into their communities to get involved with these good cause projects. This is being made possible by the new operator of The National Lottery, Allwyn, which has pledged to make a difference through its annual £1m Social Value Fund.
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